CREEP,FLOW, COLOR AND

COLOR PERCEPTION

PRESENTED BY:ANUBHA SAXENA

PG 1st YEAR
DEPT. OF CONSERVATIVE DENTISTRY
& ENDODONTICS

CREEP
Creep is defined as the time dependent plastic
strain of a material under a static load or
constant stress.
The magnitude of deformation depends on
the materials
the temperature
the load
the time of application of the load

CREEP CURVE

STAGES OF CREEP
Creep has three stages; Primary creep, secondary creep
and tertiary creep
Primary creep: Represents a region of decreasing
creep rate. In this stage creep resistance of material
increases
by
its
own
deformation.
For
low
temperatures and stresses, this is the predominant
form
Secondary creep: Nearly a constant creep rate which
results from a balance between the competing process
of strain hardening and recovery. It is usually referred
to
as
steady
state
creep.
The average value of creep rate during secondary
creep is called as minimum creep rate
Tertiary creep rate: It occurs when there is a effective
reduction of area either because of necking or internal
void formation. It is associated with metallurgical
changes like recrystallization, coarsening etc

MECHANISMS OF CREEP
DEFORMATION
Chief creep formation grouped as:
Dislocation glide: Dislocation moving along slip planes
and over coming thermal barriers by thermal activation.
Dislocation creep: Overcome barriers
assisted mechanisms involving the
vacancies.

by thermally
diffusion of

Diffusion creep: The flow of vacancies and interstitials

through a crystal under the influence of applied stress.
This mechanism includes Nabarro-Herring and Coble
creep.
Grain boundary sliding :
other.

Sliding of grains past each

SAG is the deformation potential of long span

metal bridge structures at porcelain firing
temperatures under the influence of the mass of
the prosthesis.
Most metals do not creep as they have high
melting temperatures, an exception is amalgam
as it has components with melting points only
slightly above room temperatures.
Because of this it can slowly creep from a
restored site under periodic sustained stress
such as it would be imposed by patients who
clench their teeth. Because creep produces
continuing plastic deformation the process can
be destructive to a dental restoration

Although creep can be tested under any type of

stress, compressive stress is usually used to test
the creep of dental material.

CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE
Creep may cause unacceptable deformation
of a dental
restoration.
It may also lead to unacceptable fit of a FPD,
when a cast alloy
with poor creep resistance is veneered with
porcelain at high
temperature.

Flow
Flow: Ability of material to displace itself under
load
The term flow, rather than creep, has generally
been used in dentistry to describe the rheology
of amorphous materials such as waxes.
The flow of wax is a measure of its potential to
deform under a
small static load even that
associated with its own mass.

Flow
Flow is dependent on:
Temperature of the wax.
Force applied.
Length of time the force is applied.
Flow increases as the melting
point of the wax is approached.

COLOUR AND COLOUR PERCEPTION

What is Colour?
Sensation
induced
from
light
of
varying
wavelengths reaching eye.
OR
Colour is a phenomenon of light or visual
perception that permits
the differentiation of otherwise identical objects.
Cone cells of retina are responsible for spectral
sensitivity.
Determined visually by
measurement of hue,
chroma, and value.
What is color perception?
The perception of the Colour of an
object is the result of a physiological
response to a physical stimulus (light).

DESCRIPTION OF COLOUR
Just as a solid is described in three axes of
physical
form,colour
has
three
primary
attributes that allow it to be described with
precision.
There are three factors upon which colour is
dependent:
The observer
The object
The light source

 The success of dental treatment as

perceived by our patients is often
evaluated rather than long term
health,
function
and
comfort.
Everyone, it seems, is primarily
interested in colour.

 A need to overcome subjectivity, as the major

disadvantage of the visual shade matching
method, induced the evolution of colour science.
Colour science is multi-disciplinary and it
encompasses elements of physics, chemistry,
physiology and psychology.
In order to understand the science of colour, one
should be aware of some physical aspects of light,
as well as of both physiological and psychological
processes that enable colour preparation.

LIGHT AND COLOUR

Without
light,
color
does
not
exist.
An
object that we perceive
as
a
certain
color
absorbs all light waves
corresponding
with
other color and reflects
only those waves that
we interpret as that
objects colour.
For example , an object
that absorbs blue and
green light reflects red
appears red.

 The apparent
color of an object
is influenced by
its physical
properties,
nature of the
incident light to
which the object
is exposed, the
relationship to
other colored
objects, and the

 A surface appears white

when
it reflects
the
entire
spectrum
of
wavelengths
A surface appears black
when it absorbs all light
rays
A surface appears grey
when
all
the
wave
lengths
of
light
are
reflected and absorbed
in equal measure.

DESCRIPTION OF LIGHT
Scientifically, light is described as visible
electro magnetic energy whose wave
length is measured in nanometers or
billionth of meter.

DESCRIPTION OF LIGHT
The eye is sensitive only to the visible part
of the electromagnetic spectrum, a narrow
band with wave lengths of 380-750 nm.
At shorter wave lengths lie ultra violet, X
and gamma rays, at the longer wave
lengths are the infra radiation, microwaves,
television and radio transmission.

DESCRIPTION OF LIGHT
When white light can be separated into
monochromatic components if it passes through
prism or diffraction bars. If the wavelengths of
the electromagnetic radiation is less than 380 nm,
it is called ultraviolet radiation and if it exceeds
780 nm, it is called infra red radiations.

QUALITY OF LIGHT SOURCE

A light source of the appropriate quality should be
used during visual shade matching. The appropriate
colour temperature with appropriate spectral energy
distribution and colour rendering index (CRI) must
be considered when selecting a light source.
A light source with a colour temperature close to
5500 K (D55) that is spectrally balanced throughout
the visible spectrum is ideal for colour matching.
Colour temperature is related to colour of standard
black body when heated and is reported in degrees
K.

QUALITY OF LIGHT SOURCE

Accordingly, 1000K is red, 2000 K is yellow, 5555K
is white and 8000K is pale blue.
D65 is very commonly used in dental shade matching
as the standard lighting for visual shade matching. A
light source with CRI greater than 90 is recommended
for shade matching.
Unfortunately, the most common light sources in
dental operatories are incandescent and fluorescent,
neither of which is ideal for shade matching. An
ordinary incandescent
light bulb emits relatively
higher concentration of yellow light waves than of
blue or blue green while fluorescent fixtures emit
higher concentration of blue waves.

PERCEPTION OF COLOUR
Light from an object
enters the eye and acts
on receptors in the
retina (rods and cones).
Impulses from these
are
passed
to
the
optical center of the
brain,
where
an
interpretation is made.
Shade selection is very
subjective-different
individuals will have
diiferent interpretation
of the stimulus

TRICHOMETRIC THEORY
Suggested by Thomas Young and Helmhotz
It postulates the existence of three kinds of
cones. Each cone containing different photopigment and maximally sensitive to one of
three primary colours i.e. Red, Green and Blue

TRICHOMETRIC THEORY
Any given colour consists
of admixture of three
primary colour in different
proportions
Red
Sensitive
Cone
Pigment- Erythrolabe or
long wavelength sensitive
cone pigment): it absorbs
maximally in a yellow
position with a peak of
560 nm. But its spectrum
extends far enough into
the long wavelength to
sense red

Green Sensitive Cone Pigment- (Chlorolabe or

medium wavelength sensitive cone pigment):
it absorbs maximally in the green portion with
peak at 530 nm.
Blue Sensitive Cone Pigment (Cynalobe or
short wavelength sensitive cone pigment): it
absorbs maximally in the blue-violet portion
of the spectrum with a peak at 415 nm.

OPPONENT THEORY
Ewlad Hering stated that some coloursare
mutually exclusive.
The cone photoreceptors are linked together
to
form
three
opposing
colour
pairs:
blue/yellow, red/green and black/white
Activation of one member of the pair inhibits
activity of the other
No two members of a pair can be seen at the
same location to be stimulated
Never buish yellow or reddisg green colour
experienced

OPPONENT THEORY
The trichromatic theory by itself was not
adequate to explain how mixture of lights of
different colours could produce lights and yet
another colour or even to appear colourless.
So both theories are useful in that
The colour vision is trichromatic at the level
of photoreceptor and Opponent theory is
explained by subsequent neural processing

COLOUR ADAPTATION
Chromatic adaptationis the human visual
systems ability to adjust to changes in
illumination in order to preserve the appearance
of object colors. It is responsible for the stable
appearance of object colours despite the wide
variation of light which might be reflected from
an object and observed by our eyes.
An object may be viewed under various
conditions. For example, it may be illuminated
by sunlight, the light of a fire, or a harsh
electric light. In all of these situations, human
vision perceives that the object has the same
color: an apple always appears red, whether
viewed at night or during the day. On the other
hand, a camera with no adjustment for light

METAMERISM
Two colours that appear to be a match under
given lighting condition are called metamers
and the phenomenon is known as metamerism.
For example, two objects that appear to be an
identical shade of yellow may absorb or reflect
light differently. Normally a yellow object may
reflect yellow light but some may actually
absorb and reflect orange and green
The quality and intensity of lights are factors
that must be controlled in matching colours in
dental
restorations.
Because
light
from
incandescent lamps, fluorescent lamps and the
sun differs, the match in colour between a
pimented dental material and tooth structure

FLUORESCENSE

Fluorescenceis the emission of light by a substance

that has absorbed light or other electromagnetic
radiation. It is a form of luminescence. In most
cases, the emitted light has a longer wavelength,
and therefore lower energy, than the absorbed
radiation.

Sound human teeth emit fluorescent light when

excited by ultraviolet radiation, the fluorescence
being polychromatic with the greatest intensity in
the blue region of the spectrum. Some anterior
restorative materials and dental porcelains are
formulated with fluorescing agents to reproduce the
natural appearance of tooth structure.
Fluorescent material such as tooth enamel, reemit
radiant energy at a lower frequency that it is
absorbed.

OPALESCENCE
Natural
edges,
creates
colours
angles.

teeth especially at their incisal

exhibit a light scatter effect that
the appearance of bluish white
as teeth are seen at different

This is similar to bluish-white background

seen in opal gemstone- hence the name.
An attempt to match this effect in the
restoration is made.

DESCRIPTION OF COLOR
1. Munsell color order system
2. CIELAB color system

Munsell color order system

Devised in 1905 by A. H munsell
3- dimension : Hue , Value ,
Chroma
Hue : That quality by which we
distinguish one color family from
another, as red from yellow from
blue or purple.
Value : Value relates a color
brightness to the specific area
on the black-white scale.
(Squinting maneuver, rods
function)
Chroma : that quality by which
we distinguish a
strong color from a weak one.
Munsell notation : H V/C Eg . 5R
5/8

CIELAB COLOR SYSTEM

Introduced in 1976 and
recommended by international
commission on illumination.
Used exclusively in color research
in dentistry around the world.
Equal distances across the CIELAB
color space represents
approximately uniform steps in
human color perception.
Defines color space in three
coordinates as L*a*b
L = proportional to value of
munsell system
a = red-purple/ blue-green axis
b = yellow/ purple-blue axis

L*= (L* sample minus

L*
standard)
=
difference in lightness
and darkness (+ =
lighter, - = darker)
a*= (a* sample minus
a*
standard)
=
difference in red and
green (+ = redder, - =
greener)
b*= (b* sample minus
b*
standard)
=
difference in yellow and
blue (+ = yellower, - =
bluer)
E*
=
total
color
difference

Hue
It represents the color of the material, i.e
yellow, green, red and blue.
This would depend on the wave length of
reflected light.
Short wave length= Violet hue
Long wave length=Red hue

HUE
In younger permanent dentition, hue tends to
remain similar throughout the mouth. With
ageing , variations in hue often occur because
of intrinsic and extrinsic staining from
restorative
materials,
food,
beverages,
smoking, and other influences

Studies have shown that most natural

Teeth fall in a Hue range between
Yellow and yellow-red

CHROMA
The purity of a colour, or its departure from white
or gray.
The intensity of a distinctive hue; saturation of a
hue
High chroma= High amount of hue
with little dilution.
Low chroma=small amount of hue with
large amount of dilution.
In general chroma of teeth increases
with age.
Studies have shown that teeth have a
Chroma range of 1.5-5.6 .
An achromatic shade would then have
a chroma number near 0

CHROMA
Croma is the intensity of the hue. The term
saturation and chroma are used interchangeably
in dental terminologies: both refers to the
strength of given hue or concentration of pigment.
A simple way of visualising differences in chroma
is to imagine a bucket of water. When a drop of ink
is added, a solution of low chroma results, adding
a second drop of ink increases the chroma, and so
on, until a solution is obtained that is almost all
ink and consequently of high chroma.

Stephen F Rosensteil, Martin F land, Junheo Fujimoto, Contemporary Fixed

Prosthodontics, Fourth edition

VALUE
Value is defined as the relative
lightness or darkness of a color
or the brightness of an object
or amount of gray in the hue.
Value of 0 = black
Value of 10 = white
Most important factor in tooth
shade matching.
Tooth with high value looks
vital .
Tooth with low value looks
gray(non-vital).
It is a direct consequence of
the amount of light energy an
object reflects or transmits.
Studies have shown most teeth
fall in a range from 5.8-8.5.

VALUE
The quality by which a light colour is
distinguished by a dark colour, the
dimension of the colour that denotes
relative blackness or whiteness.
It is the only dimension of the colour that
may exist alone.
The brightness of any object is a direct
consequence of the amount of light energy
the object reflects and/or transmits.

VALUE
It is possible for objects of different hues to
reflect the same number of photons and
thus have the same brightness or value. A
common
example
is
the
difficulty
experienced in trying to tell a green object
from a blue object in a black and white
photograph. The two objects reflect the
same amount of light energy and therefore
appear similar in picture.

Stephen F Rosensteil, Martin F land, Junheo Fujimoto, Contemporary

Fixed Prosthodontics, Fourth edition

VALUE
A restoration that has too high a value may
be easily detected by an observer and is a
common esthetic problem in metal ceramic
restorations.
A light tooth has a high value, a dark tooth
has a low value. It is not the quantity of the
colour gray, but rather quality of the
brightness on a gray scale. That is the
shade of colour (hue plus chroma) either
seems light and bright or dark and dim. It
is helpful to regard value in this way
because the use of value in restorative
dentistry does not involve adding gray but
rather manipulating colours to increase or

RELATIVE CLINICAL IMPORTANCE

OF HUE, VALUE AND CHROMA
Colour matching authorities state that hue
difference are easiest to detect and value
difference is most difficult.
Hue difference may be recognized most
easily, but a slight mismatch in hue may not
be as objectionable as a slight value
mismatch .

COLOUR AND TEETH

Human teeth are never
a single colour
Cervical third: The
perceived colour close
to pure dentine.
Middle third: (Body
colour) mainly the
dentine hue,
influenced by the thick
layer of overlying
Enamel
Incisal third: minimal
influence of dentine
,mainly the influence
of enamel

THE COLOUR WHEEL

Hues,
are
used
in
dentistry,
have
a
relationship
to
one
another that can be
demonstrated on a colour
wheel. The relationships
of primary, secondary
and complementary hues
are graphically depicted
by the colour wheel.
Kenneth
Aschheim,
Barry
Dale,
Esthetic Dentistry a clinical approach
to techniques and materials.

PRIMARY HUE
The primary hues - red, yellow and blue form the
basic of dental colour system.
In dentistry the metal oxide pigments used in
colouring porcelains are limited in forming
certain reds; therefore pink is substituted.
The primary hues and their relationships to one
another form the basic structure of the colour
wheel.

Kenneth Aschheim, Barry Dale, Esthetic Dentistry a clinical approach to

techniques and materials.

SECONDARY HUES
The mixture of
secondary hue.

any

two

primary

hues

forms

When red and blue are mixed they create violet, blue
and yellow create green and yellow and red create
orange.
Altering the chroma of the primary hues in a mixture
changes the hue of secondary hue produced.

Kenneth Aschheim, Barry Dale, Esthetic Dentistry a clinical approach to techniques

and materials.

SECONDARY HUES
Primary
and
secondary hues can
be organised on the
colour
wheel
with
secondary
hues
positioned
between
primary hues.

Kenneth Aschheim, Barry Dale,

Esthetic
Dentistry
a
clinical
approach
to
techniques
and
materials.

TERTIARY COLOURS
The tertiary colours
are produced when
a primary colour
and a secondary
colour are mixed in
equal quantities.
They
take
their
name from the two
mixed colours

Complementary Hues
Colours
directly
opposite
each other on the colour
wheel
are
termed
complementary
hues.
A
peculiarity of this system is
that a primary hue is always
opposite a secondary hue and
vice versa. When a primary
hue
is
mixed
with
complementary
secondary
hue, the effect is to cancel
out both the colours and
produce gray
This is the most important
relationship in dental colour
manipulation.
Kenneth Aschheim, Barry Dale, Esthetic
approach to techniques and materials.

Dentistry

clinical

Complementary Hues
When a portion of crown is too yellow, lightly
washing with violet (the complementary hue of
yellow) produces an area that is no longer yellow.
The yellow colour is cancelled out and the area will
have an increase in the grayness (a lower value).
This is especially useful if the body colour of the
crown has been brought too far incisally and more of
an incisal colour is desired towards the cervical
area.
If the cervical area is too yellow and brown colour is
desired, washing the area with violet cancels the
yellow. This is followed by application of the desired
colour, in this case brown.
Kenneth Aschheim, Barry Dale, Esthetic
approach to techniques and materials.

Dentistry

clinical

Complementary Hues
Complementary hues also exhibit the useful
phenomenon of intensification. When a
complementary hues are placed next to one
another, they intensify one another and
appear to have a higher chroma. A light
orange line on the insical edge intensifies
the blue nature of an incisal colour.

Kenneth Aschheim, Barry Dale, Esthetic

approach to techniques and materials.

Dentistry

clinical

Hues Sensitivity
After 5 sec of staring at the tooth or shade
guide, the eye accommodates and becomes
biased. If a person stares at a particular
colour for longer than 5 seconds and then
stares away at white surface or close his
eyes,
the
image
appears
but
in
complementary hue.
This
phenomenon
is
known
as
hue
sensitivity and adversely affects the shade
selection.
Kenneth Aschheim, Barry Dale, Esthetic
approach to techniques and materials.

Dentistry

clinical

Opacity
An opaque material does not permit light to pass
through. It reflects all the light that is shined on it.
A porcelain fused to metal restoration must have a
layer of opaque porcelain applied to the metal
structure to prevent colour of the metal appearing
through
the
translucent
body
and
incisal
porcelains. Improper tooth reduction results in two
unacceptable results: An ideally contoured restoration with minimal porcelain
thickness and too much opaque porcelain, resulting in
chalky appearance.
A bulky, poorly contoured restoration with ideal porcelain
thickness
Kenneth Aschheim, Barry Dale, Esthetic
approach to techniques and materials.

Dentistry

clinical

Opacity
Tooth preparation must be sufficient to
allow enough room for an adequate bulk of
body and incisal porcelains.

Kenneth Aschheim, Barry Dale, Esthetic

approach to techniques and materials.

Dentistry

clinical

Translucency
Translucent materials allow some light to
pass through them. Only some of the light is
absorbed, translucency provides realism to
an artificial dental restoration.

Kenneth Aschheim, Barry Dale, Esthetic

approach to techniques and materials.

Dentistry

clinical

Depth
In restorative dentistry, depth is a spatial concept
of colour bending combining the concepts of opacity
and translucency. In natural dentition, light passes
through the translucent enamel and is reflected out
from the depths of the relative opaque dentin.
White
porcelain
colourants
used
in
colour
modification are opaque. Gray porcelain colourants
are mixture of white and black. A tooth restoration
with a white opaque colourant on the surface
appears artificial because it lacks the quality of
depth that would be seen if the opaque layer were
palced beneath the translucent layer of porcelain.
Kenneth Aschheim, Barry Dale, Esthetic
approach to techniques and materials.

Dentistry

clinical

Depth
Similarly a bright restoration (high value) in need
of graying (a decrease in value) would appear
falsely opaque if it were simply painted gray.
Adding a complementary hue, however, both
decreases the value and adds to the translucency.
If characterisation needs to be added to porcelain
to represent white hypoplastic spots or gray
amalgam stains, white or gray colourants can be
used, but with the knowledge that translucency
will be reduced in these areas.
Kenneth Aschheim, Barry Dale, Esthetic
approach to techniques and materials.

Dentistry

clinical

Depth
Depth may be problematic if translucent
composite resins are used to restore class
III or IV cavities that extend completely
from facial to lingual surfaces. The
restoration may appear gray or over
translucent. However, if a more opaque
composite resin is placed on the lingual
portion of the restoration and then overlaid
with the translucent resin a natural illusion
of depth results.

Kenneth Aschheim, Barry Dale, Esthetic

approach to techniques and materials.

Dentistry

clinical