An inside look at Kerr’s new Demi Ultra curing light

An interview with Stacy Wyatt, product manager for Kerr’s new Demi Ultra curing light about the benefits this product can bring to your patients and your practice.  

A curing light should be ready to go when you need it, even if you forgot to charge the battery the night before. You need your curing light to work while the patient is in the chair, and with the new cordless curing lights that run on batteries, that kind of availability can be a challenge.

That’s the problem the team at Kerr set out to solve five years ago when they began the development process for the new Demi Ultra curing light. They wanted to design a curing light that is available at all times, and that’s what they’ve achieved with the Demi Ultra.

Here, Product Manager Stacy Wyatt gives us a look behind the scenes at how this product was developed and what it means for your practice.

Q: How does the Demi Ultra address the charging issue that tends to be a problem with cordless curing lights?

A: Instead of using batteries, we used a U-40 Ultracapacitor. There have been advancements in this technology that allow it to store more energy, and those advancements have made it possible to fit it in  a hand held device.

With this technology, the Demi Ultra re-energizes in less than 40 seconds, which takes that variability out of the equation, the charging aspect of a battery.

The Ultracapacitor has a super long life and lasts eight times longer than a battery. It will last for the life of a light, and you don’t have to worry about batteries or needing to charge it for long periods of time. But if you do leave it on the charger it won’t shorten the lifespan like with other curing lights. Dentists don’t have to be concerned at all about how they’re using it.

Q: What features are you most proud of?

A: I would have to say the C.U.R.E. technology. It reduces the energy required  to create the same output. The Demi Ultra has the same performance as the Demi Plus as far as wavelength and output, yet the Demi Ultra uses half the energy to do it.

That’s the cool thing about it. It can achieve the same uniform depth of cure. The Demi Ultra cures 2 mm in five seconds, but it does so much more efficiently. That’s what I’m most proud of. It cures quickly and well but does it more responsibly.

Many curing lights have LEDs in the handpiece that generate light that travels down a glass light guide. That’s not efficient, and you lose 50 percent of the output. So we moved the LEDs to the tip to avoid all that waste. That’s how we can create the same output with half the energy, and that means less heat for the patient.

One thing a glass light guide does is it blends light, so you do lose that effect a little when you put the LEDs in the tip. We’ve added a Total Internal Reflector (TIR) lens. It’s like a prism and blends the light at the tip so that when it comes out, it comes out as a more uniform beam, so you’re getting a uniform cure with less heat.

Q: What were some of the biggest challenges you faced in developing the Demi Ultra?

A: One is the fact that ultracapacitors don’t store as much energy as a battery. So with a battery light you can get 60 minutes of run time or more and with an ultracapacitor you’re getting 25 10-second cures. We had to make sure we could achieve that and make sure the run time was feasible.  But the great thing is if you do go past that run time, it only takes 40 seconds to re-energize and then you can use it again. 

Another challenge is our Demi Plus unit has a fan in the handpiece. When you have a fan you need a vent to circulate air and keep the LEDs cool. We don’t have a fan or a vent at the tip. We have a heat sink on the tip to keep the LEDs from over heating.  

The Demi Ultra is fully sealed. We didn’t want to sacrifice ergonomics; we knew we needed to keep the handpiece lightweight but that we still needed to protect its electric components from  being damaged by fluids. We created a frame that is made of metal and plastic that fits together to fully seal the handpiece. The challenge was  getting those parts to fit together.

It took a awhile to get it right so the handpiece was protected without sacrificing the ergonomics Demi products are known for. That was the biggest challenge we overcame in the development process.

Q: What other features would you like our readers to know about?

A: One feature the Demi Ultra has that brings peace of mind is a radiometer built into the charging doc. The radiometer instantly communicates charging output and lets dentists know if they need to clean the tip before curing. The user interface is another great feature. We wanted to keep it very simple, so we have one mode and three curing durations. You turn it on and it’s ready to go.  We also have a silent mode feature that many people appreciate.

Watch Dr. John Flucke share his thoughts on Kerr Dental's new Demi Ultra Ultracapacitor Curing Light: