What clinical factors are often overlooked?
While regularly maintaining a high-quality curing light is very important to optimizing your procedure, there are several other factors you need to consider:
Infection prevention barriers can impact the quality of irradiance:
Using disposable translucent barriers – such as wraps, tip sleeves, and finger cots – can be beneficial in many ways, including helping prevent contact with oral tissues, thereby eliminating the time and expense of sterilization. However, they can impact the power of your curing light. Dr. Price recently published a study looking at the effect of barriers on irradiance and found that barriers can reduce the output of your curing light. If the barrier is applied incorrectly, such as with the seam across the light tip, it could significantly reduce the power density from the curing light.
2 With this in mind, you should choose your barriers carefully and use barriers designed for your curing light whenever possible, as well as make sure to apply them correctly. An improvised barrier, like saran wrap, might not affect your light – but neither will it provide adequate infection prevention, as that’s not its intended purpose. In order to prevent any interference, test your curing light output with and without an infection control barrier, so you can know whether or not you need to adjust the cure time.
Clean your light curing tip after each procedure:
Even if you’re using barriers, it’s important to clean your curing light between uses – not only to ensure sterility between patients, but also to keep your device working at optimum efficiency. Residue from your composite or adhesive could stick to the tip and reduce output. I’ve tested curing lights, cleaned them, and then re-tested, and seen a difference of 200 mW/cm
2 in the output. Something as simple as using an alcohol wipe on the tip of the curing light could increase the performance of your device. It’s not worth investing in a more expensive light if you could use a $0.02 wipe and achieve the same performance increase. So, before you assume that you need to replace the battery or the light, check the tip first!
Check your technique:
More than anything, good technique is key. The light should be as close to and as parallel with the surface being cured as possible. Additionally, the light should be centered over the material being cured. Tilting the curing light may cause the surrounding tooth structure to block the light from being delivered to the intended surface and affect polymerization. And while often overlooked, strong communication is actually a critical part of your technique. In many dental practices, the light curing task is passed off to the dental assistant – so it goes without saying that they should know what your composite needs for a proper cure. In addition, make sure every member of the team uses sufficient eye protection. Because you shouldn’t look directly at the light, many clinicians will simply turn away – but how can you guarantee accuracy if you’re not looking? That’s where eye protection barriers come in, both on your device and on your eyes: so you can keep an eye on the placement of your light tip.