Shade selection, the key step of color reproduction, determines the success of restoration. The visual method which is considered as the tradition shade selection method could be influenced by subjective and objective factors, such as color matching conditions, receiver’s age and visual fatigue. However, digital dental shade selection could overcome these disadvantages and its inherent characteristics: Objective, accurate, flexible to use, and so on, have attracted more and more dentists’ attention. In recent years, with the development of techniques and the increasing requirement about the aesthetic effects, digital dental shade selection technology has been widely used in dental clinical. This paper reviewed the types, characteristics and clinical application of digital shade selection instruments.
