Colour stability and visual perception of dimethacrylate based dental composite resins.

The spectrophotometric method of colour measurement was applied to an investigation of the colour stability of dimethacrylate based composite resins exposed to thermal and photochemical aging. A good correlation was observed between visual perception of colour change and the spectrophotometric colour difference [delta E (FMC-2)] of unexposed and aged specimens, but 50% of the observers considered the colour match of two specimens to be clinically unacceptable when the colour difference exceeded 10.6. Kinetic studies of thermally and photochemically induced colour change showed a sigmoidal dependence of colour change on the logarithm of exposure time. Because the direction and magnitude of the colour change differed for the two procedures, it would appear that different mechanisms are involved.