Why Would a Dentist Want an LED Curing Light

Recently, a new concept to dentistry, the LED, has entered the market. There have been significant sales promotions from the several companies selling LED lights. As a result of the promotions, dentists appear to be more confused than before.

In the last few years, there has been an emphasis on enhanced conventional curing lights to provide greater curing intensity and faster cure. The most obvious way this has been accomplished is by the use of light guides that diminish in size as they exit from the curing light.

LED dental curing lights have some apparent advantages:

        1. Diodes are long-lasting without the need for frequent replacement.
        2. They generate no heat during curing.
        3. They offer a moderate curing time of about 10 to 20 seconds.
        4. They are quiet in operation. They are cordless, small and lightweight.

Of course, they also have some disadvantages:

        1. Their technology is new to dentistry, and the concept still is evolving.
        2. Their curing time is slower than that of PAC lights and some enhanced halogen lights.
        3. Their batteries must be recharged.
        4. They cost more than do conventional halogen lights.

LED choices
The use of CPQ is very common by most manufacturers, but there are a few adhesive materials that use a different photoinitiator. Because of that, and the specifics of LEDs, there’s potential for a material to not be cured by a device designed to work only with CPQ. Fortunately, because LEDs can be created to produce different wavelengths, there are now several devices that can cure every resin-based material on the market. (To find out which photoinitiator your materials use, be sure to ask the manufacturer.)

All general practitioners need curing lights for myriad curing tasks. Light-cured resin has become the state of the art during the past 25 years. It seems logical that the light-curing concept would have matured during that time, but it has not.

Without question, light-curing is desirable, but practitioners are confused about the most appropriate light-curing concept to use in their practices. Because of this confusion, some practitioners have continued to use older lights in spite of the advantages offered by some of the newer ones. The light-emitting diode, or LED, concept is challenging more established modes of curing, and some dentists are buying LED lights. And many practitioners who have purchased the even faster plasma arc curing, or PAC, lights are not willing to go back to the slower LED light-curing method.

The choice about which type of curing light to buy should be based on which of the various lights’ features suit the specific practitioner best. As a dentist, you should know different dental equipment clearly. Then you can make the best choice.

Original Source: http://www.oyodental.com/Why-Would-a-Dentist-Want-an-LED-Curing-Light