Effect of surface topography on the color of dental porcelain

The objectives of this study were to evaluate the color difference depending on the surface topography of roughness and glazing, and to determine the effects of color measuring geometry and the standard illuminant on the color of a dental porcelain. Disk specimens of A3 shade were fired with commercial dental porcelain for PFM. Specimens were divided into non-polished (ST 1), polished with 200, 400, 1000, 1500-grit SiC papers (ST 2, 3, 4, 5) and glazed (ST 6) groups. After measuring the average surface roughness (Ra), color was determined under the illuminant A and D65 on a spectrophotometer with the specular component excluded (SCE) and included (SCI) geometry. Ra values were significantly influenced by the surface topography. With the SCE, the CIE L* value after glazing was significantly lower than that after polishing. Color differences (E*) measured with the SCE were higher than those with the SCI (2.61–4.66 vs. 0.93–1.57). Therefore the SCE geometry seemed to more accurate protocol for the color measurement of dental porcelain.