Dental Illumination Light Guide With Ceramic Blue-Light Conversion
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing dental illumination systems require additional apparatuses for providing white or colored light for applications like curing fillings, inspection, and assessment, which are complex, elaborate, and costly, and often result in significant light loss due to color filters.
Innovation Solution
An illumination system with a handpiece and a light guide unit featuring a fiber-optic light guide rod and a converter that converts blue light into white or colored light using ceramic materials like Ce:YAG, allowing efficient and robust operation without additional instruments, enabling easy switching between applications.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If additional apparatuses like color filters are used to provide white or colored light for inspection and assessment, then the functionality for multiple applications is improved, but the device complexity and cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent integrates multiple functions into a single light guide unit by incorporating a converter that can generate both blue light (for curing) and white/colored light (for inspection and assessment). This eliminates the need for separate illumination instruments, allowing one device to perform multiple dental applications including curing fillings, inspecting teeth, and assessing gum tissue.
2Adaptability or versatility
If color filters are used to convert blue light into white or colored light, then the light conversion functionality is achieved, but significant light loss occurs
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the physical-chemical parameters of the light guide unit by incorporating a converter material that transforms the spectral characteristics of the light. This converter changes the wavelength distribution of blue light to produce white or colored light with high efficiency, avoiding the significant light absorption losses associated with traditional color filters.
3Reliability
If separate illumination instruments are used for curing and inspection, then the specialized functionality is maintained, but the handling complexity and time required increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges the curing function and inspection function into a single integrated light guide unit. The converter within the light guide unit enables it to switch between emitting blue light for curing and white/colored light for inspection, allowing the dentist to perform both operations with one instrument rather than switching between separate devices.
4Reliability
If multiple separate devices are used for different dental applications, then the specialized performance is maintained, but the productivity and efficiency decrease
Solution Approach 1:
The integrated light guide unit with converter provides specialized performance for both curing and inspection applications while improving productivity. By eliminating the need to switch between separate devices and reducing setup time, the system allows for more efficient workflow in dental procedures without compromising the specialized functionality required for each application.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The system provides mechanically robust and efficient conversion of blue light into white or colored light, facilitating simple and reliable handling for dental procedures like curing, inspection, and assessment without additional equipment, while maintaining high efficiency and durability.
Implementation Method 1
The light guide unit comprises at least one converter, the converter converting the radiation, that is to say for example blue light, of the at least one semiconductor lighting element in the operating state into a distal radiation of the fiber-optic light guide rod at its distal end face, so that this distal radiation in the operating state has essentially white and/or color-neutral light, or colored light
Data Source
AI summary
An illumination system is provided, having a handpiece with an illumination unit and a semiconductor lighting element which provides a radiation of essentially blue light in the wavelength between 400 nm and 500 nm, and a light guide unit connectable to the handpiece. The light guide unit includes a fiber-optic light guide rod, having a proximal end face and a distal end face, and a sleeve. The fiber-optic light guide rod is fixed in the sleeve by a first adhesive in a portion of the proximal end face. The light guide unit has a converter, for converting the radiation of a semiconductor lighting element in the operating state into a distal radiation of the fiber-optic light guide rod at its distal end face. The distal radiation in the operating state has essentially white and/or color-neutral light, or colored light, a wavelength in the visible spectral range.