PHOTOCOMPOSITE, LIGHT SOURCE AND THERMAL DETECTOR

• US 20170035539A1
• Filed: 08/04/2016
• Published: 02/09/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 08/06/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Transparent Materials, LLC
• Original Assignee: Transparent Materials, LLC
• Inventors: Bringley, Joseph F.
• Granted Patent: US 10,568,726 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: A61C 1/0015 Electrical systems
• CPC Class Codes: A61C 19/004 Hand-held apparatus, e.g. guns

Abstract

The invention provides a dental curing device comprising a light source having a wavelength capable of inducing polymerization of a photopolymer, and a noncontact thermal detector in alignment with said light source and capable of measuring the temperature or temperature change of the photopolymer upon polymerization.

Claims

1. A dental curing device comprising a light source having a wavelength capable of inducing polymerization of a photopolymer, and a noncontact thermal detector in alignment with said light source and capable of measuring the temperature or temperature change of the photopolymer upon polymerization.

2. The device of claim 1 wherein the temperature change versus light source exposure time is used to indicate the degree of polymerization of the photopolymer.

3. The device of claim 1 wherein the temperature versus light source exposure time is used to indicate the degree of polymerization of the photopolymer.

4. The device of claim 1 wherein the device is a hand-held device.

5. The device of claim 1 further comprising a microprocessor.

6. The device of claim 1, wherein the light source and thermal detector are contained in a distal end of a tip of the dental curing device.

7. The device of claim 6, wherein the tip of the dental curing device is attachable to a housing.

8. The device of claim 1 further comprising a reference thermal detector unaligned with the light source.

9. The device of claim 1 wherein the light source is a blue LED curing lamp.

10. The device of claim 1 wherein the light source is an ultraviolet, visible or electron beam light source.

11. The device of claim 1 wherein the noncontact thermal detector is a thermopile sensor.

12. The device of claim 11, wherein the thermopile sensor is located adjacent the light source.

13. The device of claim 11, wherein the thermopile sensor is shielded from the light source by means of a long pass filter having a cut-off wavelength greater than 1000 microns.

14. The device of claim 11, wherein the thermopile sensor has a Germanium or Silicon window and wherein the device is focused to a spot size of less than 1 cm.

15. The device of claim 1 wherein the noncontact thermometer is focused to a spot size of less than 3 mm.

16. The device of claim 1 wherein the noncontact thermal detector has a field of view of less than 90 degrees.

17. The device of claim 1 wherein the noncontact thermal detector has a field of view of less than 30 degrees.

18. The device of claim 1 wherein the noncontact thermal detector is an optical pyrometer, thermopile sensor or thermal imaging camera.

19. The device of claim 2 wherein a change in slope of the temperature change versus light source exposure time is used as an indicator of the degree of polymerization.

20. A method of determining the cure state of a photocurable dental object comprising:

placing a photopolymerizable composite within an oral cavity;

providing a dental curing device comprising a light source having a wavelength capable of inducing polymerization of the photopolymerizable composite, and a noncontact thermal detector;

directing the light source to the photopolymerizable composite at a distance (d), wherein (d) is between 0 and 30 millimeters;

turning on the dental curing device;

collecting temperature data with the thermal detector at a rate of at least 1 time per second;

directing the collected data to a microprocessor;

computing the slope of temperature change with the microprocessor;

selecting a slope value indicative of photopolymerizable composite cure; and

turning off the light curing device when the slope value has been reached.