Tough curing questions with Dr. Chris Salierno

What is the proper curing time for your bulk fill composite versus your esthetic composite? Is your five year old curing light still performing correctly or should you increase your length of cure to compensate?

We use our curing lights multiple times a day and yet, I’d bet most of us would struggle to answer these questions. It’s time we start curing with confidence, and not just for the sake of our patients. It has been reported that half of all dental income relies on the successful use of light-cured materials, so ignorant curing can be costly to our bottom line, not just our reputations.

The modern dental practice uses a myriad of cured materials. We can’t blame ourselves for not being able to perfectly recall a dozen “Instructions for Use” (IFUs) from different manufacturers, but we should strive to do better.

Overcuring materials wastes time and can potentially overheat sensitive tissues; think of a high powered light lingering for too long on a liner material less than a millimeter from the pulp.

Undercuring materials can be a complete disaster; think of open and chipped margins on recently-restored teeth. If we’re just vaguely curing everything for ten seconds then we’re guilty.

And let’s say you are managing your IFUs well and you’re curing times for each material are accurate. Who says your curing light is putting out the same energy as the one the manufacturer used when testing their product? Who says your light is performing the same way it did when you took it out of the box a few years ago?

Fortunately there is a quality control measure we can easily integrate into our practices that will address all of these concerns. CheckUp by Bluelight quickly assesses the energy output of your curing light and then tells you the correct curing times for all of your favourite materials. It’s all managed from an app, so you or a team member can begin testing your lights easily and regularly.

I have four lights in my practice of different ages and different manufacturers and about twenty different cured dental materials. I simply didn’t have the means to monitor my curing. With CheckUp I have a turnkey solution to a problem that I was ignoring for years. Now I can answer those curing questions with just a few taps on my phone.

American Dental Association Survey Center. The 2005–06 Survey of Dental Services Rendered. ADA, Chicago; 2007

American Dental Association Survey Center, Health Policy Institute. 2013 Survey of Dental Fees. ADA, Chicago; 2014

NCES. Revenue of dentists (NAICS 62121) in the United States from 2009 to 2014. Statista - The Statistics Portal; 2014