April 04, 2011
Dr. Richard Price of the Department of Dental Clinical Sciences has been awarded $10,000 from the Faculty of Dentistry Research Fund for his research on "Developing a New Standard for Reporting the Light Output from Dental Curing Lights". Dr. Price and his colleagues have previously found that when a dental curing light is directed at a surface, the light that falls on the surface is not uniformly distributed, that is, some areas will receive more light than others and the light may also be at different wavelengths. At present, light manufacturers provide a single number to describe the light output of their curing lights. This number is actually an average of the light output at the tip of the curing light. This may pose problems for dentists when placing resin restorations as they do not have an accurate indicator of the output of the light. Dr. Price's research will involve mapping the light output (irradiance) emitted from a number of different types of curing lights in order to develop a new standard for reporting light output.