Prosthodontics & Occlusion · patient case question
The crown on tooth 12 appears too bright beside her very yellow natural teeth. Which dimension of colour differs most?
Patient case: Restoring a broken-down tooth
demo: 45-year-old female
chief: Wants to restore a heavily broken lower molar and to improve the appearance of her upper front teeth.
history: Nothing relevant medically. She has had a crown placed on tooth 12 elsewhere.
meds: None.
findings: Tooth 30 has minimal remaining coronal structure with 0.5 mm of sound dentin above the crown margin circumferentially. An impression and a working cast from the first attempt show voids at the margin and a torn finish line. The crown on tooth 12 is markedly brighter than the adjacent very yellow natural teeth.
Show answer and explanation
Correct answer: A. Value
- A. Correct. Value is lightness or brightness and is the dimension the eye detects first and finds most objectionable when it is wrong. A crown that reads as too white against yellow neighbours is too high in value. Value is also the hardest error to correct, which is why it is assessed first and under multiple light sources.
- B. Chroma is the saturation or intensity of the hue. It matters, but a mismatch in chroma is far less conspicuous than one in value.
- C. Hue is the basic colour family, in dentistry mainly within the yellow to yellow-red range, and it varies least between natural teeth.
- D. Translucency affects the vitality of a restoration, particularly at the incisal third, but it is not the dimension responsible for a crown reading as simply too white.
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