1. L.E.D. Radiometersds/Kerr

2. Optilux Radiometersds/Kerr

3. Cure RiteDentsply/Caulk

REALITY’S CHOICESLight Meters

©2005 REALITY Publishing Co. Vol. 19 The Ratings 709

Light meters (also known as radiometers) allow you to check thecuring effectiveness of your curing lights quickly and efficiently bymeasuring the amount of blue light (450-500nm) your curingunit is emitting. It doesn’t really matter how bright your lightappears. As a matter of fact, many bright-appearing curing unitsemit light outside the curing range. If the blue wavelength light isnot strong, no amount of brightness will cure light-sensitive mate-rials thoroughly. You can do your own scrape tests, but that istime-consuming and wastes composite. It is much easier to use alight meter.

Undercuring can result from lack of power in the blue lightoutput. This means that a soft uncured layer can be left at the bot-tom of restorations. The real danger is that this lack of thoroughcuring is likely to go unnoticed.

Light meters probably do not accurately compare one light toanother. However, light meters are useful when comparing indi-vidual lights for power loss. We suggest testing a light when it isnew and then retesting it every week. If the power has declinedmore than 10% from when it was new, change the bulb and retestthe light. In addition, check each of your tips. Some tips may havediminished capacity to get the curing power from the light to therestoration. Keep your tips clean — resin adhering to the ends ofthe light tips can reduce the amount of light irradiating therestoration.

TestPower readings from these meters were compared when measuringseveral different lights. Results of these tests are:

Optilux L.E.D. CureRadiometer Radiometer Rite

Light Type Tip (mW/cm2) (mW/cm2) (mW/cm2)Optilux 501 Hal 11mm 733 749 897C75 Color Talk Hal 11mm 942 884 1,126Spectrum 800 Hal 11mmT 833 842 995Radii LED Integral 825 1000 1,9871LEDemetron 1 LED 11mm 725 713 766SmartLite iQ LED 11mmT 600 640 643Bluephase LED 10mm 985 863 850

1Reading appeared for a brief viewing period and then the LCDquickly reverted to a reading of 1.

The variability in these readings underscore our recommendationnot to use a meter reading to compare lights, but only to monitorindividual lights for degradation of their bulbs, filters, etc. In addi-tion, this point can be further emphasized by our finding that evendifferent units of the same light meter can give different readings.

Light Meters

©2005 REALITY Publishing Co. Vol. 19710 The Ratings

Product CostDigital or

AnalogMinimum Tip Size Battery

PowerSwitch

Holds Reading

Need toReset

OptiluxRadiometer

sds/Kerr

Cure RiteDentsply/Caulk

L.E.D. Radiometer

sds/Kerr

$183.35

$231.75

$183.35

Analog

Digital

Analog

7mm

7mm

7mm

No

Yes

No

No

Yes

No

No

Yes

No

No

Yes

No

Length Width Thickness

4.75in/12.1cm

3.0in/7.6cm

1.1in/2.9cm

5.5in/14.0cm

3.0in/7.6cm

0.9in/2.4cm

4.75in/12.1cm

3.0in/7.6cm

1.1in/2.9cm

Dimensions Maximum PowerReading(mw/cm2)

1,000

2,000

2,000

Description Off-white plastic. It has a recessed 7mm porthole that has a seriesof concentric rings around it to help stabilize a curing tip. Therings are also recessed on different levels. For example, the deepestring (flush with the light-sensitive porthole) is 9.7mm in diame-ter. This ring would be used for 8mm tips. The next ring, slightly(1.0mm) elevated from the first one, is 12.7mm in diameter andwould be used for 11mm tips. The last ring, also slightly elevatedfrom the previous one, is 14.7mm in diameter and would be usedfor 13mm tips. It has an analog gauge, which reads in mW/cm2

from 0-1000 in 100mW/cm2 increments. Its name and abbreviat-ed instructions are printed on the back of the unit.

Dimensions Length 4.75in/12.1cmWidth 3.0in/7.6cmThickness 1.1in/2.9cm

Use All you do is place your light tip over its porthole and activate thelight. The curing light actually supplies the power. There is no bat-tery or on-off switch.

Directions Handbook, six languages. Gives good information in a logicalmanner. However, the recommendation to use the enclosedHardness Disk to check whether composite is cured or not isprobably not a good idea, since our tests show this method ofchecking curing effectiveness is not reliable.

Description Blue plastic. It has a recessed 7mm porthole that has a series ofconcentric rings around it to help stabilize a curing tip. The ringsare also recessed on different levels. For example, the deepest ring(flush with the light-sensitive porthole) is 9.7mm in diameter.This ring would be used for 8mm tips. The next ring, slightly(1.0mm) elevated from the first one, is 12.7mm in diameter andwould be used for 11mm tips. The last ring, also slightly elevatedfrom the previous one, is 14.7mm in diameter and would be usedfor 13mm tips. It has an analog gauge, which reads in mW/cm2

from 0-2000 in 200mW/cm2 increments. Its name and abbreviat-ed instructions are printed on the back of the unit.

Dimensions Length 4.75in/12.1cmWidth 3.0in/7.6cmThickness 1.1in/2.9cm

Use All you do is place your light tip over its porthole and activate thelight. The curing light actually supplies the power. There is no bat-tery or on-off switch.

Directions Plain paper sheets simply stapled, 16 languages. Gives good infor-mation in a logical manner. However, the recommendation to usethe enclosed Hardness Disk to check whether composite is curedor not is probably not a good idea, since our tests show thismethod of checking curing effectiveness is not reliable.

©2005 REALITY Publishing Co. Vol. 19 The Ratings 711

Cost: $183.35

Warranty: 2 years

L.E.D. Radiometersds/Kerr

(4.6)

Measures all types of lightsUpper limit is 2,000 mW/cm2

Analog gauge not preciseNeed to read while light is activated

REALITY’SC H O I C E S 1

NEW

Light Meters

Cost: $183.35

Warranty: 1 year

Optilux Radiometersds/Kerr

(4.5)

Easiest to use — not even a power switchNo resetting necessary after using

Analog gauge not preciseNeed to read while light is activated

REALITY’SC H O I C E S 2

Description Off-white plastic. Printing on the front includes its name and des-ignation as a light meter. It has a slightly recessed 6.6mm porthole,but this slight recess does not help to stabilize a curing tip. It readsoutput in mW/cm2 from 0-1999 in 1mW/cm2 increments on adigital LCD. Its name and abbreviated instructions are printed onthe back of the unit. It will test tips from 7-15mm and requires a9V battery. When the battery is insufficient, a “lo bat” messagewill appear on the LCD. To change batteries, you must loosenfour screws on the back of the unit.

Dimensions Length 5.5in/14.0cmWidth 3.0in/7.6cmThickness 0.9in/2.4cm

Use The switch on the right side activates the unit, revealing the largedigital LCD display. This display makes it very easy to read theoutput of a light. You place the curing light tip over the portholeand the unit will display the reading. It takes 10-20 seconds toreach its maximum reading and you should move the tip of yourlight over the porthole to make sure its reading is accurate.

It maintains its reading even after you remove the light fromthe porthole. However, the reading starts to decline almost imme-diately, so don’t delay in recording the score. You must turn theunit off to cancel the reading and then on again to run anothertest. Since the score is not lost immediately after removing thelight from the meter, you can use it to check extraoral curing lightsif you can fit it into the chamber.

Directions Single sheet of folded plain paper. Information is presented well.However, the warranty card states “to obtain the warrantydescribed in the operating manual...”. We would not consider thesingle sheet a “manual” and there was nothing about the warrantyon the sheet.

©2005 REALITY Publishing Co. Vol. 19712 The Ratings

The L.E.D. Radiometer is supposed to be the firstradiometer made specifically for LED curing lights.However, our tests show it not only measures the lightsfor which it is intended, but also halogen. It is an exactclone of its older sibling (Optilux Radiometer) in formand usage, except for the color (it’s blue rather thanoff-white) and the analog gauge, which is white withblack print (rather than the reverse), reads in mW/cm2

from 0-2000 in 200mW/cm2 increments (instead of 0-1000 in 100mW/cm2 increments). Therefore, since itseems to do everything better than its elder and costsexactly the same, this would seem to be the product tobuy if you don’t already have a light meter. On theother hand, since you really don’t need to know if yourlight is performing at levels above 1000mW/cm2, it is

not necessary to buy this meter if you already have theoriginal, since they both seem to register a similar out-put, regardless of what type of light you are checking.As a matter of fact, the back of this light clearly statesthat it detects blue light from 400-500 nanometers.This explicitly means it will read any device producingblue light, regardless of how it is produced.

In addition, even though it will read output as highas 2000mW/cm2, the actual analog gauge is not anywider. This means that each reading is less precise,especially in the more critical lower ranges. It couldalso be improved with a digital version that held itsreading once the light was deactivated. And therecessed aperture, while helping to stabilize tips, alsomakes it more difficult to clean.

REALITY

Cure RiteDentsply/Caulk (4.1)

Cost: $231.75

Warranty: 2 years

Digital readouts more preciseHolds reading after testing is completed

Most expensive in categoryTurning it off and on for resetting can be a nui-sance

3

Light Meters

Light Meters

©2005 REALITY Publishing Co. Vol. 19 The Ratings 713

Coltolux Light MeterColtene/Whaledent

Curing Light Meter Sullivan-Schein

OTHER PRODUCTS IN THIS CATEGORY

The Optilux Radiometer has not changed and,although the introduction of its blue sibling seems tousurp its preeminent position, it still has great utility,especially in measuring the critical lower power outputranges. Its ease of use set the gold standard and itshares the least expensive mantel with its family mem-ber. All you do is put your tip over its aperture, turn thelight on, and read the score. However, the analoggauge on the Optilux Radiometer does not permit asprecise readings as digital readouts and it doesn’t holdthe reading when the light goes off.

The Cure Rite has a digital readout that is easier toread and more precise than analog and it holds thereading on the display for a few moments. However, touse it again, you must turn it off and turn it on again.It’s also the most expensive in this category. And,although it is supposed to register output as high as2000mW/cm2, we found it quickly lost a reading thatwas close to its maximum.

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