DentiMag3D™ True Cool™ LED Lighting

The DentiMag3D™ uses all LED (Light Emitting Diode) illumination.  Older style halogen or Xenon lamps have several disadvantages.  They generate much more heat than light and use much more power than LEDs.  Also, their lifetime is much shorter than an LED lifetime and replacements can be expensive.  You always need a spare lamp on hand when using these older technologies!

In contrast, the LED lighting sources used on the DentiMag3D™ use low power, do not generate significant heat, and have a long lifetime.  The lifetime of LEDs is so good that we guarantee to replace them for free if they fail!  Since there are three separate LED light sources in the system, the chance of all three going out at once is almost impossible in normal use.

The DentiMag3D™ has LED lights on the left and right sides of the camera.  These provide flood and fill lighting for the microscope and for many tasks and can replace your normal dental light.  There is also a light inside the case of the camera that goes through some optics so that it comes out along the same optical path as the stereo camera (coaxial lighting).  This central light is ideal for seeing down inside holes.  When using the microscope at higher magnification, a light concentrator can be flipped up into the central light path for and even brighter coaxial source.  With the light control pendant, each light may be turned on or off independently.  The brightness level may be varied from dim to full power without affecting the color of the light, unlike older lamps which tend to turn reddish when dimmed.

Why do we call it True Cool™?  The LED lighting is cool in several ways.  It does not generate nearly as much heat as conventional lamps, keeping the housing of the product from getting hot.  Also, the LEDs do not generate the wavelengths of light (infrared) that would be felt as heat by patients.   Additionally, this type of lighting does not generate much of the wavelengths that cure dental adhesives. 

You may know that LEDs are used in many commercial dental curing devices.  However, these devices use LEDs designed specifically to emit the frequency of light that will cure dental adhesives.  These  devices are used for about 20 seconds at a power of 150 to 200 mW/cm² in the 450-490 nm waveband¹. This is the most effective curing range for camphorquinone, the key light-activated compound in dental resins².   The DentiMag3D™, with all lights on, no filters in place, and the light concentrator in use has a maximum power of 0.75 mW/cm² in this waveband.  This means that the instantaneous power in the curing light is 200 to 267 times the DentiMag3D™’s power. If the curing light is used for 20 seconds, it would take the DentiMag3D™ about 5000 seconds, or about 80 minutes, to cure the compound.   You probably will get more curing power from your fluorescent lighting or sunlight through your windows than you'll get from the True Cool™ lights! 

²European Journal of Orthodontics 27 (2005) 173-179, “Degree of conversion of two lingual retainer adhesives cured with different light sources”, Serdar Usumez et al.