1. A computer readable medium comprising one or more programs for carrying out a method for determining a patient's tooth shade, which method comprises the steps of: generating an electronic image of a patient's tooth wherein the image includes color information representative of the patient's tooth color; storing color information representative of a plurality of tooth shades; and directly comparing the color information of the electronic image with the stored tooth shade color information to identify one or more tooth shades having a color or combined color that corresponds to the patient's tooth color.