The dental market has been flooded with high powered cordless dental curing lights in recent years. These curing lights use LED bulbs rather than the old halogen bulbs that have been used in corded curing lights for years. They offer a wide range of benefits: light weight, portability, high powered curing, and even a cleaner looking operatory.
They aren’t without their negatives of course. These lights get their power from batteries, and many of the manufacturers have done a poor job designing quality batteries. For a while it was not uncommon for some of the batteries to require replacement as often as every 6 to 8 months.
I have noticed recently that many of the manufacturers have stepped up in the quality control department, and have made great strides in improving battery longevity. Still, rechargeable batteries are by their very nature an item that requires replacement from time to time.
Of course, not all is bad. The LED light source is good for thousands of hours – for all intents and purposes an LED will never burn out. This means that while you might be replacing batteries from time to time, you will no longer have to worry about stocking extra bulbs or replacing them.
Due to the portability of these lights, there is no need to keep a bulky charging station in your operatory. Many dental offices charge the batteries in a central location, such as the sterilization room, and keep the light in the operatory. By doing this, the light can be stored in a drawer or cupboard, out of sight and out of the way.
Another benefit of these dental curing lights is power. Many of the newest super high output curing lights can cure in as little as 5 seconds. This is a huge improvement over the 20 seconds that many of the traditional bulb curing lights required.
Cordless curing lights may not be ultimate solution to light curing, but they are a dramatic improvement over the previous generation of lights.
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