SCHOTT AG - Dental

Medical

Dental Applications

For dentistry SCHOTT manufactures fiber rods and light guides in accordance with customer specifications. Our products offer the following special features:

High transmission
Outstanding autoclavability and ability to withstand repeated machine washings
High mechanical durability, designed not to chip or to break
Imaging fiber optics (flexible and fused high resolution coherent imaging components)
Multiple colors (black, clear, amber)

The main applications for our dentistry related products are photo-polymerisation of dental filling materials and lighting of handpieces.

Modern dental instruments generally have a light source to illuminate the treatment area. A light guide is built into the handpiece instrument for this purpose. For these applications, SCHOTT supplies precisely shaped fiber rods that fit exactly into the restricted space inside the handpiece. Although the fiber rods are produced from different glasses, they have excellent mechanical stability and resistance to breakage. The glasses used have high resistance to chemical attacks and are perfectly compatible with the strict hygiene standards called for in dental surgery. The excellent transmission of the fiber rods remains at a consistent high level, even after being subjected to several thousand autoclave and machine washing cycles. Additionally, flexible light guides can be used in dental instruments. For this purpose SCHOTT has developed a type of fiber that also withstands the extreme conditions encountered in autoclaves.

Dental cavities are increasingly being filled with composites that can be cured by light. The blue light (approx. 45 nm) required for the curing process is fed from a hand-held light source via an ergonomically shaped fiber rod or fiber taper to the tooth being treated. For these applications we supply customer-specific shaped fiber rods or fiber tapers with a high transmission. SCHOTT has developed various glass types for the manufacture of these fiber rods that are free of conductivity. The excellent transmission characteristics of these glasses remain quite unaffected even after being autoclaved several thousand times.

Today's medical tools also use laser diode bars for several applications. SCHOTT fiber optic rods are suitable for physical and optical beamshaping. These rods couple the laser energy from the rectangular shape of a diode bar into the round fiber of the application tool.