The Missing Link for Curing Light Monitoring
Written by Pam Maragliano-Muniz
Imagine this. You go to work every day, see patients. Provide them with the most appropriate treatment plans and strive for excellence with every case.
Despite this, you have patients return with post-op sensitivity after a direct restoration is placed. Or even worse, a restoration that de-bonded. Or a composite that fails sooner than you had planned.
We know that no restoration will last forever, but what if these failures have nothing to do with your clinical skills or handling of materials and were a result of the malfunction of your curing light?
Many of us depend on the proper functioning of our curing lights and compatibility of composites with our light but are not monitoring the functionality of our lights.
I recently wrote an article about this very subject. I discussed the importance of ensuring that not only the curing light is working properly, but also that it is used correctly.
If a curing light is not functioning per the manufacturer’s recommendation, incomplete curing of the composite may take place. The composite may seem cured when using visual and tactile evaluation and unbeknownst to the dentist, the composite is really a cured outer layer with an uncured center.
The article also discussed ensuring that the curing light you are using must be compatible with all visible light-curable materials that are used in the practice. If a composite requires a wavelength of light that is outside of the range of the output of the curing light, it is not possible for that material to be cured properly.
Although my article discussed many considerations associated with curing lights, it did not offer any solutions for curing light assessments.
There are multiple sources, including ADA, that suggest frequent monitoring of your curing lights. Today, there are solutions such as radiometers available on the market that provide a simple light reading.
However, one new and innovative technology that has taken the guesswork out of light-curing has recently become available, and it is CheckUp from Bluelight.
CheckUP is a device that is connected to an app via Bluetooth that will offer the following benefits:
Assess your light’s output: Find out how much energy your light is emitting, to ensure that your light is functioning properly.
Heat management: When the light is assessed, checkUP will let you know how much time it takes for your light to generate heat, to prevent you from overheating teeth, restorations and soft tissue.
Curing times of your materials: Enter your favourite VLC materials into the app and checkUP will tell you how long it takes for your individual light to properly cure and the recommended increment for placement of each material.
We depend on our dental equipment to function properly so that we can provide our patients with beautiful and lasting restorations. Frequent monitoring of our curing lights is essential to ensure that our curing lights can successfully cure our direct restorative materials and adhesive resin cements.
Bluelight CheckUp provides us with a simple solution for us to obtain important information about each individual curing light and the proper handling of each visible light curable material.
Learn more about how CheckUP can help you in your practice here.