What are the types of dental loupes used in dental microsurgery?
Donnerstag, 24. Oktober 2019
The modern day dentist has numerous magnification systems to choose from. These magnifying systems range from simple loupes to compound prism telescopic loupes and vast variety of surgical microscopes. Each magnification system has its own advantages and also its own limitations. Fundamentally these loupes are made up of two monocular microscopes with lenses positioned side by side and angled in such a way to focus on a single object.
The various types of loupes are:
1.Simple loupes
2.Compound loupes
3.Galilean loupes
4.Prism loupes.
Devices of each category may differ widely in construction of the lens and design.
Simple loupes
Simple dental loupes consist of a pair of single, positive, side-by-side meniscus lenses. Each lens has two refracting surfaces. The first refraction occurs when light enters the lens, and the other refraction happens when the light leaves. The magnification of simple loupes can be increased only by enhancing the lens diameter or increasing the lens thickness. The size and weight are the limitations of these devices, so they do not have any practical applications in dentistry.
Compound loupes
Compound loupes have an array of convergent multiple lenses. There are air spaces in between these lenses which gives an additional refracting power, magnification, working distance, and depth of field. Such loupes can be easily adjusted as per the clinical requirements by lengthening or shortening the distance between the lenses. Compound lenses can be achromatic, and this feature is to be given importance while selecting a dental loupe. These achromatic lenses are efficient in producing a color perfect image.
Galilean loupes
These loupes are cheap and are simple to operate while compared to other compound loupes. These loupes consist of only 2 or 3 lenses which make them light in weight and also inexpensive. Their only disadvantages are limited magnification (2.5- or 3.5-fold) and a blurry peripheral border of the visual field.
Prism loupes (or wide-field loupes)
As their name itself suggest, these loupes consist prisms which are used to refract light rays. These loups have prism fixed at the top, i.e., they are called as rooftop or Schmidt prisms. These prisms are used to lengthen the light path through a series of switchback mirrors positioned between lenses. This system hence provides better magnification, wider depths of field. This also ensures the users to have long working distances and if compared with other loops they have larger fields of view. So these loupes are optically most advanced type of magnification instrument in the market at present. The ranges of magnification of these loupes are around 1.5x to 6x. Generally the dentists use magnification loupes of range 2.5 to 3.5. However, periodontists prefer magnification of 3.5 to 4.5-fold. In case of surgeries done on delicate tissues requires loupes that magnify 5.5 to 6.5-fold.
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