Curing Lights and their Use in Dentistry: Knowledge Translation from Researchers to Clinicians

Each year more than 146 million light cured white dental fillings are placed costing at least $25 billion dollars in the USA alone. However, the longevity of white resin based fillings placed in the average dental office is not as long as it could be (6 years when it can be more than 15yrs). Curing lights are now at least 10 times more powerful than 10 years ago and almost universally use LED technology instead of quartz-tungsten-halogen bulbs. This change in dramatic light output and light technology has caused some challenges for dentists who do not have the means to compare the efficacy of new light curing technologies or methods. We propose to hold a meeting on June 18, 19 & 20, 2012, or September 24, 25 & 26, 2012 that will present and transfer collaborative research efforts across a number of faculties at Dalhousie University in the areas of Physics, Computer Sciences, Biomedical Engineering and Dentistry to Key Opinion Leaders in dentistry. Working as a collective group, this meeting will assist the Key Opinion Leaders transfer their collective laboratory and clinical research experiences into a strategy to provide dentists with the information they need to ensure that resin filings will last longer. The meeting will: 1) Discuss how to transfer the laboratory research on dental light curing units (LCUs) and resins to the level of the average dentist. 2) Determine what material components might be improved in both the light and the resin to improve patient outcomes. 3) Develop and propose new scientific standards for measuring the output from LCUs and their ability to cure dental resins that incorporate and reflect their actual use in the mouth. At its conclusion, the meeting will springboard a much larger meeting. Ultimately this knowledge will result in considerable cost benefits to Canadians and will also place Canadian researchers as world leaders in this important and rapidly evolving field of research and technology.