Metamerism
Posted on 06/26/2012
Metamerism is the term used to define the capability of humans to recognize different colors and their relation under different light sources (such as natural light, fluorescent light etc.)
Metameric matches occur more frequently in the near neutral colors such as white and gray and the dark colors such as black. As colors become lighter or more saturated (i.e. on the chroma scale), metameric matches become more difficult.
In dentistry, it is often the case that a lab fabricated restoration which appears to be a very close match under fluorescent lighting, is noticeably different under natural sun light or color corrective lighting. The term: "illuminant metameric failure" describes this situation and can be extended to any two material samples that match when viewed under one light source but not under another.
Achieving metameric color matches in dentistry is often a challenge due not only to color matching, but due to other material attributes including translucency, gloss or surface texture of adjacent teeth. As in color matching in the paint industry, dental labs often aim at achieving spectral color match rather than metameric color match. Spectral color match attempts to give two colors the same spectral reflectance characteristic, which in turn often makes them good metameric matches.
Portions of this post were adapted from the book:
Fundaments of Color - Shade Matching and Communication in Esthetic Dentistry published by Quintessence Publishing Co. Inc
and the
Wikipedia article/s:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metamerism_(color)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metamerism
Metameric matches occur more frequently in the near neutral colors such as white and gray and the dark colors such as black. As colors become lighter or more saturated (i.e. on the chroma scale), metameric matches become more difficult.
In dentistry, it is often the case that a lab fabricated restoration which appears to be a very close match under fluorescent lighting, is noticeably different under natural sun light or color corrective lighting. The term: "illuminant metameric failure" describes this situation and can be extended to any two material samples that match when viewed under one light source but not under another.
Achieving metameric color matches in dentistry is often a challenge due not only to color matching, but due to other material attributes including translucency, gloss or surface texture of adjacent teeth. As in color matching in the paint industry, dental labs often aim at achieving spectral color match rather than metameric color match. Spectral color match attempts to give two colors the same spectral reflectance characteristic, which in turn often makes them good metameric matches.
Portions of this post were adapted from the book:
Fundaments of Color - Shade Matching and Communication in Esthetic Dentistry published by Quintessence Publishing Co. Inc
and the
Wikipedia article/s:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metamerism_(color)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metamerism
