Lighting apparatus for guiding light onto a light polymerizable piece to effect hardening thereof
AssigneeIvoclar Vivadent AG
InventorsWolfgang Plank, Gottfried Rohner
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A lighting apparatus for dental purposes having plurality of light sources supported on semi-conductor bases, which are mounted on a substrate is provided. The lighting apparatus includes a reflective over surface encircling the light sources which reflects visible light. The lighting apparatus may be deployed in a light hardening device as a light source unit with the emitted light beams being conducted, in particular, by a prismatic body, to a light guiding conduit.
Claims18
A lighting apparatus, for irradiating a dental restoration piece comprising:
- a plurality of light sources supported on semi-conductor bases configured in the overall shape of an inverted U, each of which are mounted on a substrate, at least two of the light sources being disposed in an opposed relationship to one another such that they irradiate opposed sides of a dental restoration piece, and at least one further light source being disposed at right angles to said at least two light sources so that a further differing side of a dental restoration piece is irradiated;
- and
- a reflective over surface encircling the light sources which reflects visible light, the reflective over surface being formed by a reflection layer, which is built up upon the substrate, and wherein the reflection layer is a metallic electrically conductive layer.
A lighting apparatus, for irradiating a dental restoration piece comprising:
- semi-conductor substrate configured in the overall shape of an inverted U;
- opposed light sources for hardening photopolymerizable material supported on the substrate, the opposed light sources being capable of irradiate opposed sides of a dental restoration piece, and at least one further light source being disposed at right angles to said at least two light sources so that a further differing side of a dental restoration piece is irradiated.
A lighting apparatus for irradiating a light polymerizable dental restoration carried by a tooth;
- said apparatus comprising:
- a dental practice instrument having a head;
- a semi-conductor substrate carried by the head of the dental practice instrument;
- and
- a plurality of light source means mounted on the semi-conductor substrate for directing light over the dental restoration cried by the tooth from three directions so that a light hardening process can be preformed thereby on differing sides of a dental restoration carried by the tooth so there is no longer a need for an exact post-irradiation monitoring or verification of the locations at which the light hardening has been performed, this approach being particularly operationally reliable, wherein at least two of the plurality of light source means are disposed in an opposed relationship to one another such that they irradiate opposed sides of the dental restoration.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.