Curing of dental composites by use of InGaN light-emitting diodes

Abstract

A potential application of blue-light-emitting InGaN LED's as a polymerizing source for dental composite materials is described. We compared a basic LED device with a conventional curing light in vitro to determine the polymerization parameters and to examine the effect of the curing process on the physical properties of these materials. It was determined that an array of six LED's was able to set a range of composite materials more quickly than a conventional light source, with the cured compounds showing similar hardness and material shrinkage parameters but with a lower material temperature rise during the curing process using the array. These findings indicate that a device consisting of several InGaN LED's would be an effective instrument for curing certain light-sensitive materials, particularly dental composites.