Comparison of the Masking Ability and Translucency of Different Tooth-Colored Restorative Materials

Purpose: The purpose of this study wus to evaluate the masking of simulated silver diamine fluoride (SOF) carious tooth discoloration using tooth-colored restorative materials. Methods: Eighty disc specimens (N equals 10 disc specimens per group) were prepared using pink opaquer (PO), pink opaquer with composite resin (DUAL), opaque-shade composite resin (OSC), and resin-modified glass ionomer (RMGI) of one-mm and two-mm thicknesses. Three backgrounds were prepared: white, dark dentin shade (C4D), and black tile. Vita Easyshade (R) spectrophotometer was used to determine the color values of each disc specimen against each background. Color difference (Delta E) and translucency parameter (TP) were analyzed. Results: There was o significant difference in material masking black background (one-way analysis of variance; P<0.001) in the following order. PO (TP 5.47) and DUAL (TP 189) ore similar in masking ability but much higher than RMGI (TP 11.03) and OSC (TP 17.81). For masking the dork background, the result was similar. The material thickness makes a significant difference in color masking, with two mm superior to one mm for all four tooth-colored materials (multivariate analysis of variance; P<0.001). Both PO and DUAL two mm were clinically acceptable in masking dark and black backgrounds (Delta E less than 2.7). Conclusion: Pink opaquer and pink opaquer with composite resin restorative materials were found to be the best masking materials for simulated silver dim nine fluoride-arrested carious lesions.