Influence of Restorative Materials on Color of Implant-Supported Single Crowns in Esthetic Zone: A Spectrophotometric Evaluation

Restorations of 98 implant-supported single crowns in anterior maxillary area were divided into 5 groups: zirconia abutment, titanium abutment, and gold/gold hue abutment with zirconia coping, respectively, and titanium abutment with metal coping as well as gold/gold hue abutment with metal coping. A reflectance spectrophotometer was used to evaluate the color difference between the implant crowns and contralateral/neighboring teeth, as well as the color difference between the peri-implant soft tissue and the natural marginal mucosa. The mucosal discoloration score was used for subjective evaluation of the esthetic outcome of soft tissue around implant-supported single crowns in the anterior zone, and the crown color match score was used for subjective evaluation of the esthetic outcome of implant-supported restoration. ANOVA analysis was used to compare the differences among groups and Spearman correlation was used to test the relationships. A gold/gold hue abutment with zirconia coping was the best choice for an esthetic crown and the all-ceramic combination was the best for peri-implant soft tissue. Significant correlation was found between the spectrophotometric color difference of peri-implant soft tissue and mucosal discoloration score, while no significant correlation was found between the total spectrophotometric color difference of implant crown and crown color match score.