Color Comparison Between Intraoral Scanner and Spectrophotometer Shade Matching: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Objective: This systematic review and meta-analysis compared the accuracy of intraoral scanners and spectrophotometers in determining tooth shade.

Materials and methods: An electronic search of five databases (PubMed, Scopus, Embase, Web of Science, CENTRAL) was conducted on October 19, 2023. A total of 163 studies were identified from the databases, of which 23 articles were eligible for inclusion. In vivo and in vitro quasi-experimental studies were included. After data extraction, a quantitative analysis was performed to determine the accuracy of the intraoral scanner in subgroups using four outcomes: trueness and precision with different measurement locations. A random-effects model was used to pool effect sizes. The pooled proportion with a 95% confidence interval (CI) was used for the effect size measure.

Results: Eleven articles were included in the meta-analysis. Trueness with the intraoral scanner was between 0.28 (CI: 0.09-0.60) and 0.38 (CI: 0.24-0.53). Repeatability was between 0.81 (CI: 0.64-0.91) and 0.85 (CI: 0.74-0.92). Trueness showed low, and precision had moderate certainty of evidence.

Conclusion: The trueness of shade matching with intraoral scanners is low compared to spectrophotometers, although the precision is considered high and is similar to spectrophotometers.

Clinical significance: Shade determination with intraoral scanners is not recommended.