Curing Lights for Dental Restorations


A process for preparing dental restorations includes the steps of applying a composite restorative material onto a prepared tooth followed by the application of light (curing light) to the composite of intensity sufficient to penetrate the composite to initiate polymerization and harden the fillings. Light application is then suspended for a period of time sufficient to allow for the relaxation of internal stresses created by the initial polymerization of the composite.

The most energetic light wavelength to use is ultraviolet (UV) light because each UV-photon packs far more energy than do photons of light having longer wavelengths. But UV-light is associated with skin damage and can be hazardous to both dentist and patient alike. Robert D. Maurer, et al., describes such light-cured materials and the hazards associated with exposure to ultraviolet and other intense light sources in U.S. Pat. No 5,182,588, issued Jan. 26, 1993. Glasses with filter coatings are proposed that absorb UV-light and blue-light to protect the dentist’s eyes. This, of course, does nothing to protect the patient’s exposed skin or the face and hands of the dentist.

The use of UV-light to polymerize dental composite materials proved to be too hazardous, so now blue-light only systems are used that provide as good, if not superior performance. Several manufacturers of the blue-light cured dental composite materials now exist. These roughly fall into two categories, ones that nominally cure at 430 nanometer light-wavelength, and ones that cure at about 470 nanometers.

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