Color Fuzzy Set Design for dental applications

This work presents a Color Fuzzy Set Design procedure, or similarly a color naming procedure, based on the VITA Classical dental color shade guide, for composite color matching applications in direct restorations in aesthetic dentistry. For that purpose, a psychophysical experience based on a set of visual assessments by a panel of observers was performed, with the objective of identifying the areas of the CIELAB color space which can be associated to each shade of the VITA guide. A number of composite sets from four different manufacturing companies were used in the experiment. This information was processed and a set of nonparametric Fuzzy Sets was obtained for the VITA shades, with the aid of an acceptability dental color threshold taken from previous studies. The designed Fuzzy Set System was applied for the identification of the VITA shade of different dentine and enamel composite samples (bilaminar technique) from two different manufacturing companies, with the subsequent clinical applicability. Results show a high level of accuracy in VITA shade identification of the operated dental samples, when compared with visual assessment performed by experts.