How To Implement Spectral Shade Arrangement With The Vita Classic Shade Guide and Bleached Shading

Did you ever wonder why they arranged the classic guide the way they did?  I have never gotten to ask the people at Vita about the details. There are shades that Dr.Lee developed long and far ago. That is why there is a small sticker on the right side  that says Lee and has shade numbers on it. The picture below shows the rearranged classic guide ,

Re arrange your classic shade guide to this configuration and hold it out looking at it just as you see above - then rotate the guide to an angle of about 30 degrees (like the picture in the heading of this post). You will see that the colors increase in chroma from left to right and repeat every four tabs. Showing you Red, , Yellow  & Green . You will note the arrangement is by spectral order - which is R,O,Y  G,  B,I,V  - cowboy Roy rides his horse RGB (Red /Green/ Blue) is the primary color s of in light )

This spectral order never changes -REd is the weakest spectrum and Blue is the highest energy (strongest) - color always fades from red to Gray . 

This page out of my Book "Aesthetic Edge: Bioluminescent Color & Cosmetics in Dentistry"  illustrates the spectral color involved in what we see as tooth shade . 

The "A,B & C" shades are truly shade ranges that follow are mathematical progressions . The "D" designation is a collection of  shades that apparently were developed after the original A,B,C  - "D2" is actually 0.5C as you see im my shade blending chart below you can actually make a "D1" & "D1.5" - (you heard it here first - The Stella Luminoso frit shading  system from Digital Ceramic Sciences, LLC will have these exclusive shades in their frit kit available)   

 BLEACHING:

The advent of bleaching / whitening has generated the need for a expansion into bleached shade guide availability. History has shown  NOT all teeth bleach white. Higher value (brighter) "A" range teeth will normally bleach "white" , the "B" range will brighten if the bleaching is not to intense, otherwise you are starting with a Yellow/ low orange base and risk low value  final shade result. The bleaching  effects of a "C" range shade are GRAY - The "C" range  base is yellow/green  and dilutes easily to a translucent GRAY.  We need to be aware of these issues before we have a patient start bleaching .  Making a crown or bridge BEFORE the patient finishes bleaching is asking for a train wreck in the operatory of biblical proportions.  .  

My shade blend chart above  will enable you to cross blend the classic base shades to obtain a shade guide match with any of brand of ceramic material .