Dental curing light

This light is delivered over a range of wavelengths and varies for each type of device.

There are four basic types of dental curing light sources: tungsten halogen, light-emitting diodes (LED), plasma arcs, and lasers.

It was discontinued due to this requirement, as well as the fact that the shorter wavelengths of UV light did not penetrate deeply enough into the resin to adequately cure it.

[5] It uses a high intensity light source, a fluorescent bulb containing plasma, in order to cure the resin-based composite, and claimed to cure resin composite material within 3 seconds.

In practice, however, while the plasma arc curing light proved to be popular, negative aspects (including, but not limited to, an expensive initial price, curing times longer than the claimed 3 seconds, and expensive maintenance) of these lights resulted in the development of other curing light technologies.

[6] In order for the light to be produced, an electric current flows through a thin tungsten filament, which functions as a resistor.

[6] This resistor is then “heated to temperatures of about 3,000 Kelvin, it becomes incandescent and emits infrared and electromagnetic radiation in the form of visible light”.

[7] This type of curing light however has certain drawbacks, the first of which is the large amounts of heat that the filament generates.

[6] The fan generates a sound that may disturb some patients, and the wattage of the bulb is such (e.g. 80 W) these curing lights must be plugged into a power source; that is, they are not cordless.

[6] A 2004 article in the American Dental Association's journal explained, "In LED’s, a voltage is applied across the junctions of two doped semi- conductors (n-doped and p-doped), resulting in the generation and emission of light in a specific wavelength range.

The dental LED curing lights use LED’s that produce a narrow spectrum of blue light in the 400–500 nm range (with a peak wavelength of about 460 nm), which is the useful energy range for activating the CPQ molecule most commonly used to initiate the photo-polymerization of dental monomers.

The heat generated from LED curing lights is much less which means it does not require a fan to cool it.

It uses a single high-intensity blue LED with a larger semiconductor crystal.

One issue was that the dentist did not have control over how quickly the material cured—once mixed the curing process started.