Achieving the predictable composite resin restoration: the nature of colour

64 INTERNATIONAL DENTISTRY SA VOL. 12, NO. 2 Although colour as an entity should be regarded as being only one of the many building blocks necessary in the achievement of an aesthetic restorative result, a discordant colour scheme can probably be more devastating to the overall effect than many of the other factors present. It is for this reason that so much time, research and expense has gone into the ‘colour matching’ properties of contemporary aesthetic restorative materials. The manufacturers of aesthetic restorative materials have inadvertently added to the challenge of accurate colour matching. Although producing wonderful aesthetic materials, there still remains a lack of total standardisation within the productive process and separate batches of the same material often display completely different colour properties. The shade guide remains the traditional method of recording colour matching, and for the most part this is totally inadequate as the guide is not unique to the chosen material. The objective of this paper is to present an understanding of the nature of colour and to provide a simple roadmap technique that eliminates much of the uncertainty of colour matching (Figures 1 & 2).