Top 3 Common Myths in the Loupe Industry Demystified
Dental Loupes have turned out to be a pretty excellent innovation in the field of dentistry. This is the reason why there is a huge demand for loupes in the market among professionals as well as students. With the increasing demand for loupes, there are a plethora of companies coming up with different designs and loupes providing different features.
As there are several options available in the market, it becomes pretty difficult to select a particular brand and go with it. Different sources are providing different information for loupes available in the market. There are various myths prevailing which makes it a daunting task for students to purchase dental loupes.
High-quality optics, as well as precision alignment, has become the most essential requirement for every student as well as professional. Dental loupes for students are made available by different brands, and every brand comes up with new information. Here we are going to demystify three of the most common myths related to dental loupes.
Magnification Power Selection: Is 2.5x ideal for everyone?
In the last decade, 2.5x dental loupes have been widely used by students as well as professionals in the dentistry and surgery fields. Students usually ask for advice from their classmates and mentors for essential tools such as headlights and dental loupes. They usually believe that what is best for their classmates would also be appropriate for them. But this is not the case with dental loupes. This instrument has to be customized for every individual. But still, the 2.5x magnification power is very much into question.
The main factor that every student or professional needs to keep in mind while purchasing a dental loupe is the way in which their working distance keeps on changing. This is also referred to as Working Distance Effect. If two students work at different working distances, then both of them would need loupes with different magnification power for seeing the same level of details.
We might think that it is easy to magnify any object by just bringing it a bit closer to the eyes. But this is where the problem of poor ergonomics comes into play for every clinician because they have to bend their body in unnatural ways in order to get closer to the object. For instance, if there are two clinicians with height 5.4” and 6.4”, then the shorter clinician would be able to see the objects on the table with greater details even without the loupes because he would be closer.
With greater working distances, even the required magnification for seeing a particular detail would increase. Students need to keep in mind that their working distance would play a major role. For instance, a working distance of 20 inches is actually 25% longer than a working distance of 16 inches. So, you would need to get a 25% greater magnification for viewing the same details. This is the reason why you need to customize your loupes and headlights by keeping in mind your working distance and not rely on your classmate.
You can checkout Loupe Direct which has an excellent reputation as a student loupes company as they provide several magnification options for dental loupes.
How can ergonomic loupes be identified?
Clinical ergonomics has become a pretty valued topic in the field of dentistry. Professionals are looking for loupes that are ergonomic to reduce poor posture issues. The easiest way to identify whether the loupes are ergonomic or not is through the declination angle. If the loupes contain large declination angles, then they come under the category of ergonomic ones.
Declination angle is the measurement of how well the clinicians get to look down through their eyes without bending their head or neck by using the loupes. There are several loupe companies in the market that claim their loupes to be ergonomic and would help the clinicians to prevent neck and shoulder pain due to poor posture.
The only way for measuring the correct ergonomic posture is by looking at the head tilt. Dental loupes could be considered ergonomic if they allow the clinicians or students to keep their head tilt at an angle of 25° or less. There are several pains and injuries faced by clinicians during their career because of non-ergonomic postures. Due to the weight put on your neck and back by tilting your head, there are chances of serious injuries that could even end your career early.
When students or professionals are choosing dental loupes, they should focus more on the posture instead of seeing at the advertised declination angle. If the loupes are not comfortable and appropriate as per your body, then there is no meaning of using them even if they have large declination angles.
LED lighting requirements
Usually, clinicians think that a brighter LED light is better than the others. But this is not the case. In reality, when you look at the subject through extremely bright light, it could wash out the details that you are required to see instead of illuminating them.
There are two qualities that need to be satisfied by effective as well as safe LED headlights: color balance and beam uniformity. If you get dental loupes with lights that are satisfying both the requirements, then that would allow you to view all the details at different brightness levels and also keep your eyes safe.
So, if you are testing out the headlights of loupes at the brightest level, then that is not the real way. You need to adjust the brightness level where you can view every detail with enhanced precision and accuracy along with the light being safe for your eyes.
Clinicians have come up with several myths when it comes to dental loupes in the field of dentistry. It is essential to demystify these myths and understand every concept in the correct manner. The most important thing that every student needs to keep in mind while purchasing a dental loupe is that the features would vary from person to person, so you need to focus on getting customized dental loupes at your convenience.