Light output from six battery operated dental curing lights.
Light Curing Units (LCUs) are used daily in almost every dental office to photocure resins, but because the light is so bright, the user is unable to tell visually if there are any differences between different LCUs. This study evaluated the light output from six dental LCUs: Elipar Deep Cure-S (3M ESPE), Bluephase G2 (Ivoclar Vivadent), Translux 2Wave (Heraeus Kulzer), Optilight Prime (Gnatus), Slim Blast (First Medica) and Led.B (Guilin Woodpecker) with a fully charged battery, after 50, and again after 100, 20second light exposures. For each situation, the radiant power was measured 10 times with a laboratory-grade power meter. Then, the emission spectrum was measured using a fiber-optic spectrometer followed by an analysis of the light beam profile. It was found there were significant differences in the LCU power and the irradiance values between the LCUs (p<0.01). The Optilight Prime and Slim Blast LCUs showed a significant reduction in light output after a 50 and 100 exposures, while Bluephase G2 exhibited a significant reduction only after 100 exposures (p<0.01). The Bluephase G2 and Translux 2Wave delivered an emission spectrum that had two distinct wavelength emission peaks. Only the Elipar Deep Cure-S and Bluephase G2 LCUs displayed homogeneous light beam profiles, the other LCUs exhibited highly non-homogeneous light beam profiles. It was concluded that contemporary LCUs could have very different light output characteristics. Both manufacturers and researchers should provide more information about the light output from LCUs.
University of São Paulo, School of Dentistry, Restorative Dentistry, Avenida Professor Lineu Prestes, 2227, 05508-000, São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil; Dalhousie University, Faculty of Dentistry, Dental Clinical Sciences, 5981 University Avenue, B3H 4R2, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. Electronic address: carlos.shimokawa@usp.br.
Carlos Alberto Kenji
CA
Shimokawa
University of São Paulo, School of Dentistry, Restorative Dentistry, Avenida Professor Lineu Prestes, 2227, 05508-000, São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil. Electronic address: miturbin@usp.br.
Míriam Lacalle
ML
Turbino
Dalhousie University, Faculty of Dentistry, Dental Clinical Sciences, 5981 University Avenue, B3H 4R2, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. Electronic address: jessie.harlow@dal.ca.
Jessie Eudora
JE
Harlow
Dalhousie University, Faculty of Dentistry, Dental Clinical Sciences, 5981 University Avenue, B3H 4R2, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. Electronic address: hannlprice@gmail.com.
Hannah Louise
HL
Price
Dalhousie University, School of Biomedical Engineering and Faculty of Dentistry, 5981 University Avenue, B3H 4R2, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. Electronic address: richard.price@dal.ca.
Richard Bengt
RB
Price
D055117:Curing Lights, Dental; D011211:Electric Power Supplies; D008027:Light; D013050:Spectrometry, Fluorescence; D013223:Statistics as Topic
Beam profile; Dental curing lights; Dental equipment; Emission spectrum analysis; Radiometry