Is Your Curing Light as Effective as You Are? Why Dentists Need to Test Weekly

A dentist’s job is tough enough without their equipment letting them down. And for many dentists, no piece of equipment is more important than their curing light.

Dentists use curing lights every day in restoration procedures that account for over 60% of their revenue. And yet, many dentists don’t know for certain whether their lights are curing effectively.

You can’t tell if a light is working correctly just by looking at it — you need to test it.

Today we’re launching a new initiative to encourage dentists to Test Weekly so they can rely on their curing light and get better results from their restorations.

To make it easy to get into a regular testing habit, for a limited time we’re offering free subscriptions to CheckUp if you test your curing lights with the Bluelight CheckUp Radiometer every week!

You can find out more about CheckUp here, or you can click below to see pricing for CheckUp.

Even the best quality curing lights need regular testing

Restorations are a complex art and a dentist’s best efforts can be quickly undone in the few seconds they rely on their curing light.

Every curing light is different. They come in different shapes and sizes, and have different tip diameters, light modes, outputs, and more. A good quality curing light will generally be more reliable, and cure more consistently, but even a good quality light’s output will change over time.

If you’re relying on the manufacturer’s specifications to determine the performance of your curing light, then you’re overlooking all the other factors that can impact your light’s ability to cure composites, day to day, and week to week. And by doing so, you’re risking the outcomes of every restoration procedure.

Regardless of the quality of your curing light, its performance can be impacted by material stuck to to the tip, scratches or damage to the tip, battery charge, infection control barriers.

Testing regularly will ensure that you know the exact output of your curing light in every situation. That information is crucial for dentists to find the optimal curing times for the materials in use.

The risks of an underperforming curing light

If your curing light is underperforming, or you don’t match its output to the specific requirements of your composite materials, then you risk undercuring. Incomplete polymerization brings with it the risk of debonding, fracture, and discoloration.

If you try to overcompensate by curing for longer then you risk overheating the composite and damaging the patient’s soft tissue.

Any of these post-op issues will impact both your patients and your practice. If a restoration fails due to ineffective curing and you have to redo your work, then you lose money not just in direct costs, but in lost billable chair time, which is the real profit killer.

Get into a regular testing habit with CheckUp

The American Dental Association and the Canadian Dental Association both recommend testing your curing lights regularly, and so do we!

The Bluelight CheckUp Radiometer makes it quick and easy to test your curing lights and uncover the risks hidden in your curing protocol. Through the CheckUp app, dentists can get personalized insights and precise curing times for any combination of lights and materials.

CheckUp’s smart alerts, reminders, and real-time curing advice will guide you towards a regular testing habit that increases your restoration success rate and bolsters your bottom line.