Effectiveness of a protocol for teaching dental tooth color in students with color vision impairment.

OBJECTIVE: In patients with color vision alterations (CVA), the correct determination of color is altered, but not the detection of changes in luminosity or value. There is no accepted training protocol for dental value selection in dental students with CVA. The objective of this pilot study was to determine the effectiveness of a dental color training protocol based on the dental value selection.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: An intervention study was carried out on dental students in a University setting, applying a specific dental color training protocol on two groups of students. Group 1:4 students with CVA, Group 2:4 healthy students. A third group of four students without intervention was used as a control group. An initial diagnostic test was applied, which was reapplied at the end of the training.

RESULTS: The number of errors in the selection of the dental color decreased after training in all three groups, P > .05. For the value parameter, there was a statistically significant decrease in the number of errors after training (P = .014).

CONCLUSIONS: The applied training protocol could be of help in students with CVA, but multicenter studies are needed.

CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE: Level 3 evidence level.