Loupe lights are used in conjunction with

loupe A loupe ( ) is a simple, small magnification device used to see small details more closely. They generally have higher magnification than a magnifying glass, and are designed to be held or worn close to the eye. A loupe does not have an attached h ...

s. They are mainly used in the fields of

medicine Medicine is the science and practice of caring for a patient, managing the diagnosis, prognosis, prevention, treatment, palliation of their injury or disease, and promoting their health. Medicine encompasses a variety of health care pract ...

dentistry Dentistry, also known as dental medicine and oral medicine, is the branch of medicine focused on the teeth, gums, and mouth. It consists of the study, diagnosis, prevention, management, and treatment of diseases, disorders, and conditions o ...

and

jewelry Jewellery ( UK) or jewelry (U.S.) consists of decorative items worn for personal adornment, such as brooches, rings, necklaces, earrings, pendants, bracelets, and cufflinks. Jewellery may be attached to the body or the clothes. From a western ...

. Because loupes magnify a small

field of vision The visual field is the "spatial array of visual sensations available to observation in introspectionist psychological experiments". Or simply, visual field can be defined as the entire area that can be seen when an eye is fixed straight at a point ...

, the amount of light that is focused into through the

is less than what is seen by just the

naked eye Naked eye, also called bare eye or unaided eye, is the practice of engaging in visual perception unaided by a magnifying, light-collecting optical instrument, such as a telescope or microscope, or eye protection. Vision corrected to normal ...

. The dimness experienced is negligible for a nonprofessional user, but for professionals who require

accuracy Accuracy and precision are two measures of ''observational error''. ''Accuracy'' is how close a given set of measurements (observations or readings) are to their ''true value'', while ''precision'' is how close the measurements are to each other ...

and precision and work in a confined area like dentistry, a loupe light provides illumination that will dramatically increase the level of detail he/she can see through loupes.

Loupe lights in the field of dentistry

Loupe lights have become very advanced, and their use is growing. In the past, they used to be

fiber optic An optical fiber, or optical fibre in Commonwealth English, is a flexible, transparent fiber made by drawing glass (silica) or plastic to a diameter slightly thicker than that of a human hair. Optical fibers are used most often as a means to ...

and provided little portability in dentistry. Now, with technological advancements,

LED A light-emitting diode (LED) is a semiconductor Electronics, device that Light#Light sources, emits light when Electric current, current flows through it. Electrons in the semiconductor recombine with electron holes, releasing energy i ...

loupe lights have become portable and more

ergonomic Human factors and ergonomics (commonly referred to as human factors) is the application of psychological and physiological principles to the engineering and design of products, processes, and systems. Four primary goals of human factors learnin ...

- the lightest loupe light weighs just 3 grams. Loupe lights have decreased in size, become less bulky, are more comfortable to wear and have achieved a level of brightness that is almost blinding. Loupe lights that are corded tend to be much lighter than those that integrate battery packs within the light unit. A loupe light allows dental practitioners to focus light into the

oral cavity In animal anatomy, the mouth, also known as the oral cavity, or in Latin cavum oris, is the opening through which many animals take in food and issue vocal sounds. It is also the cavity lying at the upper end of the alimentary canal, bounded on ...

without patient discomfort from a bright light. Additionally, it is able to provide shadow-free light for the practitioner since it is mounted directly in between his/her eyes.

References

{{Reflist Optical devices Light sources