Dental Lights

Dental lights, AKA operating lights, are designed to illuminate the oral cavity and provide dentists and hygienists visibility into the mouth. A dental exam light can be mounted to the chair, cabinet, ceiling, or wall and is typically attached to a swivel arm so the operator can position the light precisely overhead. Dental operatory lights provide various light patterns and intensity settings including a cure safe option that removes all blue light while working with cure-set products to prevent premature curing.

Dental light technologies include:

• Halogen, a type of dentist light are halogen gas-filled incandescent lamps that produce light at higher luminous efficiency and a range of color temperatures than other incandescent light sources
• Fiber optic, which consists of thin, flexible, cylindrical fibers of glass or plastic that can be used for the transillumination of teeth structures. Fiber optics transillumination allows caries diagnosis, calculus detection, and fractures and fissures observation. These are usually in the handpieces.
• A light-emitting diode (LED), a very efficient dentist light, emits a wide spectrum of color temperatures, consume less energy, produce less heat, and have longer lifespans than most other light sources

What are the advantages of LED dental lights?

• LED lights are 90% more energy-efficient than halogen lights
• The typical lifespan of an LED light is 50,000 hours
• LED lights do not operate as hot as halogen lights, therefore they are more comfortable for patients.

Major manufacturers of dental lights include Boyd, Engle, Flight Dental, and TPC. In fact, most chair and delivery system manufacturers will also have a dental light offering.