Adequately light-curing dental resins in the mouth has become an essential step of many dental visits. Yet how much were you taught about this part of dentistry? It is not just about shining a blue light onto a resin and thinking, ‘if the top surface is hard, it is cured’. This presentation will cover the basics of safe resin polymerization and show you how you can easily compromise the success of your restorations. The irradiance stated by the manufacturer of the curing light is usually measured under ideal conditions, and the value can be very misleading. The relevance of knowing the effects that the emission spectrum, active tip size, distance, and power output have on resin polymerization as well as how to safely use curing lights will also be reviewed.
Learning Objectives:
1. Know what terms are used to describe the light output from a curing light
2. Know if their curing light is appropriate for their practice needs
3. Know how to optimize the amount of light delivered from the curing light
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