Dental curing light

Dental curing light is used by the dentists for treating tooth cavity or filling root canal. The therapy involves the targeted action of high intensity light such as UV light to generate heat by concentrating light in the target area. To fill the cavity of tooth, adhesive chemicals such as polymer resin is used which is compressed in the cavity using the UV light. The compression makes the adhesive completely adheres to the inner surface of the tooth .With the introduction of LED curing light, comfortable dental therapy is now possible without generating heat.

Curing light technique is widely used in chemical engineering, polymer processing and medicine to generate heat in the targeted area. Infrared, Ultra violet, Halogen light etc are usually used in curing light technique. With the introduction of high power LEDs, blue LED light is now used as a source for dental curing.

Pen type battery operated curing light is used by the dentists to treat the tooth cavities. The curing light consists of a high watt LED that is capable of precisely targeting light to the desired area of the tooth. The light from LED along with the compression process, boost the adhering property of the dental resin.

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Light activated dental resin is used to fill the cavity of tooth. It is a translucent polymer that quickly hardens when exposed to specific light spectrum. The required wavelength of light depends on the chemistry of resin used. The light activated resin remains liquid form in normal light but when the light of a particular wave length is focused, the resin turns into a hard material which remains intact inside the cavity of tooth. Liquid form of resin helps to prevent the formation of air bubbles during filling.

The new light curing technique is based on Blue LED. High power LED (3 or 5 Watts) is used as the light source which emits blue light in the wave length of 430-485 nano meters. Light intensity can reach 1000 milli watt per cm2 and the timing of curing usually 10 -20 seconds can be set using a timer in the curing light. The LED lamp hardly generates heat so the operation is comfortable. The light output can be adjusted as Fast, Ramp or Pulse depending on the requirements.