What is that blue laser-like light that orthodonists use...?!


Question: What is that blue laser-like light that orthodonists use...?
All orthodonists have a blue laser light.
They hold it to the tooth or place of action in circumstances such as when they cement or glue.
It usually requires a pair of sunglasses from the patient and looking away from the orthodontist, not always.
They just press it up and the light comes on, they wait a second or two, and move to the next tooth. Maybe heat is radiating from it?
What is it and what does it do, how?

Answers:

Dentists now use a type of plastic to fill cavities instead of amalgam, which has been used for many years but contains mercury, which is not good for you. Anyway, the plastic (called composite, I think) is set, or changed from soft to permanently hard, by ultraviolet light. They prepare the cavilty with a drill, pack the soft composite in, then expose it to intense UV light for a certain amount of time and it permanently hardens to form a filling.



Copying and pasting a response from "Montana", about an almost identical question,

"It is a "blue light" or a curing light. Most have a regular halogen bulb inside but a filter only allows a blue light to exit (wave length of about 450 nm). The cement they use to place the brackets will cure or harden when exposed to blue light (actually any light but most reactive to blue).

White fillings react in the same way because they are similar materials. There are stronger types of curing lights (i.e. lasers)"



They use a type of cement that cures (hardens) when exposed to full-spectrum light. It's full-spectrum (white) light, but appears bluish because indoor lighting tends to be yellowish so full-spectrum looks blue by contrast.



It is called a curing light, dentists and orthos use it when they do fillings, cements, sealants.


Dental assistant
Katie




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