Maintaining a dental light

o Principles of operation
 function
 use
 scientific principles
o construction
 components
 system diagram
 inputs/outputs
o troubleshooting
 identifying common
faults
 replacing components
 rectifying faults
o safety considerations
 user and patient safety 13.5.3 Maintaining a dental light
 electrical safety Unit B 13.5 Maintaining dental and dental laboratory equipment
Module 279 18 B Medical Instrumentation I

Anna Worm, THET, BME, NORTEC, 2015

Dental light: principles of operation
The function of a dental light is to deliver the true, ‘reduced
shadow’, white light one needs to properly match shades,
identify details and diagnose tissue in the dental practice.

The dental light is used by dental professionals during

diagnosis and treatment of the dental structures. The
position and intensity of the light can be controlled by
he user.

Maintain a dental
Anna Worm, THET, BME, NORTEC, 2015 light
Dental light: Components

Maintain a dental
Anna Worm, THET, BME, NORTEC, 2015 light
Dental light: Construction
Although dental lights have become more complicated over the years, the basics remain the same. This
example has a manual intensity switch. The three-position intensity switch is used to set the light
intensity at one of three settings: low, medium or high. The illustrations identifies the connections for
attaching appropriate wires from the intensity switch to the dental light.

Find
User manual
and
Service Doc !

Maintain a dental
Anna Worm, THET, BME, NORTEC, 2015 light
Dental light:
Trouble
shooting

Find
User manual
and
Service Doc !

Maintain a dental
Anna Worm, THET, BME, NORTEC, 2015 light
Dental light: Safety considerations
The dental light is a relatively safe piece of equipment for both users and patients. Its small mass results
in limited impact even if it moves in undesirable manner or direction. Regular maintenance should
prevent the supporting arm from being lame or rigid.

Some dental lights make use of LEDs others use halogen bulbs. Halogen bulbs might build up heat,
which might create injuries when it touches the skin. This is not very likely to happen.

The availability of proper lighting is very important for dental professionals to be able to do
their work properly and safely. A lack of light might result in injuries in both the patient as
the user side.

Electrical safety
As with all electrical powered equipment ground integrity and the integrity of controls should be
verified regularly.

Maintain a dental
Anna Worm, THET, BME, NORTEC, 2015 light
 EN
D
The creation of this presentation was supported by a grant from THET:
see https://www.thet.org/