Many restorative tnaterials are claimed by their manufacturers to match the Vita shade guide. To verifithis claim, 40 dental personnel were asked to color match five different restorative materials to their respective Vita shade tabs according to a 5-point scale (I = ver - poor color match; 5 = excellent color match). Three shades were chosen for each restorative material (a mid Value shade as well as the highest Value shade and the lowest Value shade present in each system). Pooled scores indicated that the resin composite materials had significantly better overall shade match than did the other tnaterials evaluated and that one resin-modified glass-ionomer cement had significantly better shade match than did the "compotner" and another resirt-tnodified glass-ionomer cement. Only 11% of the scores for all material and shade cotnbinations were given a good or excellent rating (score greater than 3). Shade match to the Vita shade guide was tiot materiai dependent but tended to differ among the different Value shades evaluated