Why do my anterior composites appear too dark, even though I am using the lightest shade in my kit?

The tooth structure of anterior teeth is too thin to mask the darkness of the oral cavity with a translucent composite. Always use a kit with opaque shades [3M ESPE Filtek Supreme Plus Universal Restorative (3M ESPE); Estelite Sigma (Tokuyama Dental Corp./Tokuyama America Inc.)]. Use an opaque composite as the base on the lingual side of the restoration to create a more opaque restoration at the value level you need for a correct shade match.