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June 2009 | Dental Products Report State-of-the-art cure How LED technology continues to transform light-curing capabilities.
The author experiences great results with Kerr’s DEMI LED curing light. “Since adhesive dentistry went ‘light cured’ in the 1980s, many dental materials require some form of light activation. Halogen lights have been the standard because of the broad range of wavelengths covered to stimulate photoinitiators in the materials. There is a ‘new kid on the block’ taking over the curing light market: LED. Dr. Radz discusses the benefits of light curing with LED technology.”—Dr. Robert Lowe, Team Lead Many dental materials are dependant on a light-curing process to establish the final form of the material. Through the years, dentistry has used various light sources to perform the light-activation of these light-dependant products. For years the most popular form of light-curing technology has been quartz-tungsten-halogen (QTH); laser light and plasma arc light have found their way to the dental marketplace as well. Lasers and plasma arc, although effective for light curing, never really caught on with the dental masses, most likely because of their size and price. This left QTH lights as the industry standard. For an acceptable price a dentist could purchase a dependable light source that was a reasonable size and could effectively cure light-sensitive materials. The dental industry, meanwhile, continued to look for an even better light source for light curing dental materials. The introduction of light-emitting diodes (LED) to dentistry has made a significant impact in a short period of time. Heat wave
This picture demonstrates a light cure in progress, performed by the author, using his DEMI LED curing light. This is a benefit over QTH lights because although the QTH lights have a broader wave spectrum, this broader spectrum generates more energy, therefore more heat. LEDs are the most efficient devices available in their ability to convert electrical current into light of the correct wavelength.1 LEDs are approximately 10% efficient, while the other sources are much less than 1% efficient. This means there is far less heat generated in an LED unit than in the others,2 so there is less potential for pulpal thermal damage. The QTH light-curing units require large fans to dissipate the heat built up within the unit itself. This leads to the creation of a large and loud piece of equipment. LED light-curing units still have to dissipate heat, but because the amount of heat is so much less, this heat dissipation can be done with smaller heat syncs and/or, smaller, quieter fans and other noiseless and lightweight methods. This provides the potential to make a silent and smaller piece of dental equipment. Energy efficient Because LEDs generate less energy, they require less energy to run the light-curing unit itself. This has led the way to small, cordless light-curing units able to run on rechargeable batteries. LED light-curing units have a significant advantage over QTH when it comes to life expectancy of the light source itself. A typical QTH light bulb has a life expectancy of about 100 hours. LED light comes from an array of LEDs positioned within the light and can have a life expectancy of tens of thousands of hours. And while LEDs cannot be changed like QTH bulbs, the working life of LEDs is far beyond what a practice would require from it. The typical dental practice will use a curing light 100-200 hours per year.3 The likelihood of changing a QTH bulb numerous times before the life of an LED comes to its end is definite. CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE
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