Any decent headlamps for DENTAL use?

Hi guys: I was at a recent dental meeting where they were displaying several LED dental headlamps that were ~ 12oz. mounted on a headband. They were quite costly ranging from $700-1500! One model used lithium rechargeables, ~ 4 hrs duration, and you could purchase a waistband battery holder. The other were Ni-Cd, I believe, and lasted 8hrs. plus(on waistband).

I don't know anything about headlamps so I thought I'd ask for possible recommendations , if any, that might work well. Sure could save some money so I can buy more flashlights !
Thanks! Dave

Here are the two websites that show the different approaches:

www.enovamedical.com

www.perioptix.com

WOW!! Check out those prices! What a total rip-off. No wonder my dentist charges $75 to look at my teeth for 30 seconds. Princeton Tec and Petzl both make quality headlamps for $30-$50. Check out the headlamp section of www.flashlightreviews.com for some comparisons. I think that most available headlamps can be used with rechargeable cells. I have a Black Diamond Moonlight that I have used for years. Not for dentistry, but for camping, hiking, car repair, and the occasional power outage.

Jeff

My brother's a dentist, and he doesn't the "regular" because of the angle at which the beam is projected onto the patient's oral cavity (if I may use a spiffier term). He told me he can't easily direct the beam to where he's focusing. (Notice how the light source on the headlamps on those links are near the person's eyes, not their forhead- maybe that solves the aiming problem regular headlamps seem to have).

On the other hand, I know he's used his headlamp at least once (for dental work) in a very remote location back home. I also gave'im a modded Infinity 'cuz at some point he needed a teeth-held light for post-op check-ups. I'm not sure he uses it for that, though. Also, I corresponded with someone on CPF who's also a dentist, and they recommended tight beams, otherwise, you'll "blind" the patient with all the spill.

I'll send my brother a link to this thread, maybe that'l convince him (finally) he should join CPF. (yeah, I'm talking to you, mae)

I was just on IM with my brother, and here's the gist of our conversation:

On the use of a "regular" headlamp (his is a BD Gemini with medium output lamp):
- He'd like the LED's to be brighter (I wonder if I could transplant new Nichias in there)
- He's used it to work on patients in very remote indigenous communities back home, never at the office
- Overall, he likes it, especially for ocassional rural work

On the "specialty" products on your links:
- Those look like lights for surgery
- It's important that the light spectrum is "right" so that you get "true" color rendering (If they're LED, they might distort colors, even if they're "white" emitters - that's my plug, not his)
- It's important to have a tight beam (that looks like one of those "reverse" light assemblies with the LED mounted on the lens= extremely tight focus)
- He doesn't care about an extra headlamp for regular office work; the top light in his chair is enough
- He's used the fiber optic lamps during surgery, and they're OK; putting something heavier on your head for a long time might get uncomfortable.

DDS, my brother was starting to get too technical on me, so I just PM'ed you his e-mail addy for you guys to figure things out.

saber: thanks for the link, I'll check them out.

green LED: thanks for the feedback. Yes, a tight beam is needed. I did a demo on some fiber-optic units and they were too bulky. The beams, however were very well defined and round. Hopefully I'll be able to find an LED/headband combo that will work.
Thanks!

Glad to be of service.

greenLED: just read your reply with the conversation with your brother...thanks! I wear 4X loupes and supplementing with a headlight would help quite a bit. After 26 years in dentistry my eyes aren't what they used to be ...any help is welcome. The lights listed are supposed to be in the proper color spectrum...just too much money for an LED headlamp. Appreciate your time. Dave

I would think that a headlamp with a beam profile similar to the Surefire KL1 Gen4 (but perhaps a bit tighter) would be great for dentistry. This way no light spills into the patient's eyes. A tight spill-less beam isn't a problem at all when you are shining it from a short distance into a mouth.

my wives boss, a facial surgeon/maxilliofacia, requested me find him a headlamp a while back and he said that a more focused beam would be better........... i got him the Brinkmann Rebel headlamp and he said that that's what he was looking for.

http://www.brinkmann.net/Shop/Detai...&series=FLA-2004-0&seriesname=Headlite&id=323

I just got a PT EOS yesterday. It's a 1W with a lens. The hotspot is pretty bright with enought side spill to be usefull. You might check it out.

I thought I looked silly with my EOS on the front of my head until I pictured myself wearing an Enova with two camcorder batteries strapped to the side of my noggin! If you found an off-the-shelf model that had the form factor you wanted, in most cases the LED can be upgraded by one of our modders to get you the tint you desire if it wasn't up to your standards out of the box. Those medically focused headlamps are so expensive that you could try lots of regular headlamps before you caught up to the price of one of those camcorder-powered units.

Guys: thanks for all the feedback, links and suggestions. I will check them all out and see if one suits me OK.
Thanks! Dave

Let us know what you choose and why. I'd definitely be interested.

-LT

will post my choice once I have some more time to research the options. Dave

Another thought from my brother: He's concerned about the headlamp's straps. Depending on the material, they might not be able to be cleaned properly and pose an infection risk; especially tricky if you're planning to use this for surgery.

greenLED said:

Another thought from my brother: He's concerned about the headlamp's straps. Depending on the material, they might not be able to be cleaned properly and pose an infection risk; especially tricky if you're planning to use this for surgery.

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This is a concern I would have also. Even for general dental usage, you'd want to be able to sterilize the headlamp (including any attachment straps). Drilling/polishing with even the low-speed handpiece can certainly send a lot of liquid spray and particulate matter into the air. Generally a spray/wipe with disinfectant like Discide at least daily would be desirable. That's why it seems like a strap-based system would be less than optimal.

I'm not sure why color rendition would be that critical though, since it seems like color matching is important thing in dentistry. Unless a color match under certain lighting conditions would turn out not to be a match in different lighting conditions?

John

kubolaw said:

I'm not sure why color rendition would be that critical though, since it seems like color matching is important thing in dentistry. Unless a color match under certain lighting conditions would turn out not to be a match in different lighting conditions?

John

Click to expand...

From what I've heard my brother saying, subtle color differences are used to help differenciate healthy tissue from abnormal one. I'm guessing if you have a "colored" light source, you might mask those subtle differences, sort of what happens when looking at red lines on a map using a red LED, but I'm guessing on this last part (and my example is sort of extreme). On the other hand, you could train yourself to work with a slightly colored light source (I'm thinking YA v. WO Lux bins, for example). :shrug:

I also remember him doing some experiments when he was in school, where they loaded some kind of fluorescent die in the water supply and then worked on a patient. The splatter was all over the place, even in places where you wouldn't normally expect water to reach.

Is it obvious that I like what my brother does? :wave:

greenLED: thanks for the thoughts on disinfection...good point and very necessary. You are also correct on subtle color differences and texture differentiation with different lighting. WhenI select shades for crowns I don't use my ceiling mounted light. You want a light source that is as close to natural sunlight. My operatories have "vita-light" tubes in the fixtures which is as close to natural light as possible. It is great for shade selection. I also take the pt. outside to verify , if needed. They have had electronic methods for selection for awhile now but I have only used them as demos. I figure if I've done OK for the past 26 yrs without it , why spend the money . My last 100K went towards a CEREC CAD/CAM system which is wonderful.

kubolaw: Thanks for input. For a lot of my bonded restorations I have to be careful of certain lighting due to premature setting of some composite(plastic) fillings. Some headlamps have filters to avoid this OR emit different wavelengths.

Get a high flux LED from Cree/Lamina ceramics/lumileds, stick it to a wide heatsink with arctic alumina epoxy and cable tie this to the minimaglite headband. Attach a long powercord to a box of batteries and drive the LED with a current driver circuit... e.g. fatman from TaskLED. You'll get a wide and hugely bright white flood output. The LED output oughtn't to make your head too warm, though you will notice it gently. You'll get an hour or so of light and you can power it with cheap AA rechargables. The battery box fits in your pocket. If you pot the LED and soldered wires in silicone then the bit that goes on your head will be waterproof and hence cleanable. With the Fatman you can also get dimming too. I don't know why people don't ditch commercial headlights for this design, cheap, simple and you get massive and even illumination..... and carry a 'real' light if you want to illuminate things that are >30ft away. This is the sort of thing I have in mind....

http://candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?t=58755

I'd love to make one with several 3W CRee LEDs on or...... perist the thought..... the LAmina BL3000 monster!

Cheers

PeterW

PS Most modern white LEDs have good colour rendition... the brain will reset what is considers white depending on the illumination. Anyway overdrive the LED a bit and it ought to get 'whiter'.

I might have something coming that would be useful for dental use for a lot less than 700.