When the time comes to buy and use dental loupes you will find that there are plenty of brands and types as well as specifications to think about. At the same time, there is also not much information available that can help you find the right loupes. Choosing the right pair is thus not as easy as you might think.

The first thing that you need to do is find out why it pays to use dental loupes. Dental professionals need to work in small and poorly lit areas of the mouth and they also need to perform procedures that must be completed with utmost precision. Dental loupes are important tools that allow the dental professional to view the working area in more detail. These loupes provide the required magnification to ensure that the dental professional is able to identify the most important details like root canals and fractures as well as open crown margins.

Secondly, dental loupes provide an ergonomic solution that helps to ensure that dental professionals can go about their tasks without feeling too much pain or discomfort in their necks, shoulders and backs. The truth is that about seventy percent of dental professionals report feeling musculoskeletal pain, which can hamper their ability to perform procedures and also curtail their careers.

There are two main types of loupes to choose from. The first is called the flip-up loupe while the second type is known as the Through The Lens or TTL loupe.

Flip up loupes come with the optics attached to an arm that moves and this can be adjusted by the user to suit their needs. These loupes are also very affordable and they can be flipped up when not required. They also have a good resale value and they can be added to your prescription without much fuss or bother. However, they are also quite heavy and their field of view is on the small side.

Through the Lens (TTL) loupes are light in weight and they have a broader field of view. The nice thing about these loupes is that their optics will always be in the correct position. However, these loupes are costly and you can easily spend thousands of dollars on them. These loupes cannot be moved out of the way of the dental practitioner and this makes communicating with patients that much more difficult. They also do not have a good resale value.

When choosing your loupes, there are several things that you will have to keep in mind. Magnification is one thing that has to be addressed at the very outset. The higher the magnification the more details the dental professional gets to see. However, high magnification also means smaller field of view. Secondly, you need to look for loupes with the proper resolution. The better the resolution the clearer the image becomes. Other things to consider when choosing your dental loupes are depth of field and field of view. A large field of view is desirable and the best depth of field is about 10 centimeters.

The bottom line is that before choosing your dental loupes you need to look at magnification, sufficient depth of field, and you need to decide whether to go for TTL or flip up loupes.