Hodson Nicholas A, Dunne Stephen M, Pankhurst Caroline L
Department of Primary Dental Care, GKT Dental Institute, London SE5 9RW, UK.
Prim Dent Care. 2005 Apr;12(2):61-7. doi: 10.1308/1355761053695149.
Dental curing lights are vulnerable to contamination with oral fluids during routine intra-oral use. This controlled study aimed to evaluate whether or not disposable transparent barriers placed over the light-guide tip would affect light output intensity or the subsequent depth of cure of a composite restoration.
The impact on light intensity emitted from high-, medium- and low-output light-cure units in the presence of two commercially available disposable infection-control barriers was evaluated against a no-barrier control. Power density measurements from the three intensity light-cure units were recorded with a radiometer, then converted to a digital image using an intra-oral camera and values determined using a commercial computer program. For each curing unit, the measurements were repeated on ten separate occasions with each barrier and the control. Depth of cure was evaluated using a scrape test in a natural tooth model.
At each level of light output, the two disposable barriers produced a significant reduction in the mean power density readings compared to the no-barrier control (P<0.005). The cure sleeve inhibited light output to a greater extent than either the cling film or the control (P<0.005). Only composite restorations light-activated by the high level unit demonstrated a small but significant decrease in the depth of cure compared to the control (P<0.05).
Placing disposable barriers over the light-guide tip reduced the light intensity from all three curing lights. There was no impact on depth of cure except for the high-output light, where a small decrease in cure depth was noted but this was not considered clinically significant. Disposable barriers can be recommended for use with light-cure lights.
牙科固化灯在常规口腔内使用过程中容易受到口腔液体的污染。这项对照研究旨在评估置于光导尖端的一次性透明屏障是否会影响光输出强度或复合树脂修复体随后的固化深度。
针对无屏障对照，评估了两种市售一次性感染控制屏障对高、中、低输出光固化单元发出的光强度的影响。使用辐射计记录三个强度光固化单元的功率密度测量值，然后使用口腔内相机将其转换为数字图像，并使用商业计算机程序确定数值。对于每个固化单元，对每个屏障和对照在十个不同场合重复进行测量。在天然牙模型中使用刮擦试验评估固化深度。
在每个光输出水平下，与无屏障对照相比，两种一次性屏障均使平均功率密度读数显著降低（P<0.005）。固化套筒比保鲜膜或对照更能抑制光输出（P<0.005）。与对照相比，仅由高输出单元光激活的复合树脂修复体的固化深度有小幅但显著的降低（P<0.05）。
在光导尖端放置一次性屏障会降低所有三种固化灯的光强度。除了高输出光之外，对固化深度没有影响，在高输出光中观察到固化深度有小幅降低，但这在临床上不被认为具有显著意义。可推荐一次性屏障与光固化灯配合使用。
