Loupes have become a recognised necessity for every day dentistry, whether it be a general check up or more precise work like ended on ticks or crown preps. Using Loupes will vastly improve the quality of your work. This is due to the ability to see more detail in the working area. The other main benefit is posture. Dentists are renowned for bad back pain and neck pain. This is due to the dentist training to get closer to the patient for better vision. Wearing Loupes helps eliminate this problem due to increasing magnification, improving vision and maintaining good posture.

Optident have been selling Loupes for several years now. We have now introduced the Optident Vision Boutique. The Vision Boutique consists of several different manufacturers, with several quality lenses, magnification, lighting systems and several different frames. At Optident we realise that everybody is different, everyone has different requirements, whether it’s style, frames, magnification or even lighting systems.

Within the Optident Vision Boutique we offer both through the lens which is commonly known as TTL and flip-up Loupes. Magnification ranges from two times to 4.5 times magnification. We offer lighting systems for both.

One of the main problems when taking a shade within most surgeries is the lighting conditions. This is why we’ve developed the Opitlume Trueshade. The Opitlume Trueshade basically creates a create colour environment for taking shades.

The Trueshade uses six LEDs which are tuned to 5500 Kelvin which is pretty much perfect daylight. It uses 17% grey for the inside which is pretty much a neutral colour. We have two times magnification in the lens to give the subject a bit of magnification. Either the patient can hold the Trueshade or the dentist can hold the Trueshade. As it’s magnified it has to be kept at a distance. Insert the shade guide behind and turn on the light. In doing this it will give you a correct colour environment to take your shade.

The lighting system plays a very important part of the Loupes. As you can see with an overhead system it’s fixed in that one position. With this it’s looking exactly where you’re looking, hence the name of our product ‘Point of View’ or ‘POV’. The actual unit has several different mounting systems. This is our magnetic attachment system. As you can see the magnetic attachment system has a male and a female part. It has two magnets on the male that literally just clip straight into the front like so. We manufacturer this system for several manufacturers of Loupes, so if you don’t have our Loupes or you have Loupes already, we can fit this system onto yours. As you can see the cable is quite neatly tided round the side.

The other mounting system we offer is the universal clip. Universal clip basically clips straight onto the front of most Loupe systems, like so and then again we can tidy the cable around the side. The system comes with a control unit. The control unit has a button on the top which you hold down and press to turn the unit on. As you can see the light is colour corrected. This is a true daylight bulb that we’ve got in here, this is for LED. The battery pack will last for seven hours on full power. So if you give a single click, it will actually turn the intensity down and if you give it a single click again, it will go down further. This will therefore expand the life of the battery.

To charge the battery, all you do is unplug the cable for the light, turning off the unit first. We have a hash part here, if you hold the hash part and pull up, this is spring mounted. This is your charger. As you can see the charger unit has a space on the side for the unit to sit onto. If you look at the cable you have a red dot. If you align the red dot with the red dot on the control unit, that simply just clicks straight in.

Whilst the unit is charging, this LED at the bottom here will illuminate red. Once it’s charged which approximately takes about four hours that will turn green. The system comes with a filter; the filter is designed for when you’re working with any light cure materials. The filter just simply clips straight over the top of the light, like so.

The system comes with its own carrying case, you’ve got space for all your light, your plugs, your cables and you’ve got all your instructions and everything there as well.

Many people are confused whether to buy flip-up Loupes or through the lens Loupes. While it’s your end choice, we can tell you the advantages and disadvantages of both to help you make your final decision.

Once the magnification and working distance have been established, the Loupes are sent out just like this. It is then down to you to adjust the interpupillary distance like so, by moving the oculars in and out. One of the main advantages of flip-up Loupes is the ability to move the magnification out of vision and place back down when needed. One of the disadvantages to this is the fact that every time you move that bracket up and down, some adjustment may have to be made to put them back into the correct position.

Several manufacturers may vary but as a rule flip-up Loupes do tend to be slightly heavier. This is mainly due to the increasing weight from the bracket and also the distance from the oculars to the actual frame. One of the main advantages of flip-up Loupes is the fact that you can incorporate your prescription just at your local optician and should anything change with your prescription they don’t need to be sent back to the manufacturer.

One of the main advantages of a through the lens Loupe is actually the weight. Because we haven’t got the bracket on the front like we’ve got with the flip-up, these are actually quite light. One of the other advantages is the actual ocular is cut through the lens, so this in turn gives you a larger field of view. A lot of people associate this with looking through a keyhole, the closer you get your eye to the keyhole, the more you can see on the other side and it’s exactly the same with these.

Every set of TTL Loupes or through the lens Loupes are manufactured for you so they are made for each and every individual person. We measure your interpupillary distance, your working distance, your pupil height and also you’re the declination angle of the actual ocular. Prescriptions can be easily incorporated into the Loupes. We can put them both in the outer lens and into the ocular. All you need to do is give us your prescription from your optician and then we can manufacturer the Loupes normally within four to five weeks.

We have two different lens types available a Galilean and a prismatic. They are both available in both flip-up and through the lens Loupes with a large variety of frames. One of the main advantages of a Galilean lens is obviously the weight, so here we have a lens at the front, a lens at the back and also a prescription carrier should you need it. A Galilean we can do a 2 times magnification, a 2.5 and 3. The prismatic lens incorporates seven lenses. The reason for this is to gain edge to edge clarity. The magnifications for these are 3, 3.5 and 4.5.

For more specific details on which system would best suit you, please feel free to contact us.

Most quality companies will require some tailoring to make the loupes work best for you. You should consider this if you are going to be using the frames for many working hours. In this article we will look at custom made and off the shelf frames.

The loupes Examvision provide are done once your personal measurements are taken and , when needed, supplied with built in corrective lenses. Examvision offer a lightweight magnifying loupes using a through the lens (TTL) system.

To ensure both a larger field of vision and a higher resolution, Examvision offers loupes mounted through the lens which reduces the distance between the loupes and your eyes. The company use an improved Galilean telescope magnifying system, with up to 20cm of crystal clear depth of vision, Examvision says offers you unsurpassed freedom of movement. To give you the most flexible and correct working posture, the loupes can be angulated individually to your specific needs. For optimal light and true colour transmission, each lens is coated with a high performance non-reflecting surface.

As your eyesight can alter, Examvision offer a service to change the corrective lenses accordingly. Re-adjustments to improve working posture can also be made.

Of the shelf loupes
Companies do offer off the shelf loupes including Univet. Univet precision magnification systems offer a multitude of Loupe designs. Custom designed Through-The-Lens (TTL) Galilean telescopes provide optimum optical quality and vision that can be worn all day long. Fully adjustable Flip-Up Loupes are great when quick interaction between magnification and the naked eye is of importance.

Univet optics can also be housed on Tom Davies ergonomic designer frames Univet offer an extensive range of ergonomic frame designs in an array of popular colours.. All lenses are prepared with anti-reflective coating for true colour transmission and all magnification systems are completely waterproof.

Have you considered custom made?
Custom made is something you may want to consider if you are going to be using the loupes a lot. The main reason for custom made is fit & weight. Certainly our advice would be don’t try to save a few pounds and live to regret it.

One company offering custom made are Optident. Optident have partnered with Tom Davies, winner of Optical Product of the Year 2008, and his bespoke spectacle framing service created for clients all over the world. The custom made service all have the ability to offer complete magnifcation loupes. As expected they start with a blank canvas, and offer a huge range of sizes, materials and designs makes this service truly unique.

This is the first step in creating a perfectly balanced frame. Using a specially designed precision measuring devices, you will have your individual measurements taken. Made to measure, eye positioning, facial line, nasal angles and the distance between your ears and temples are needed to measured

Final step to creating your tailor made loupes is to select your choice of magnification from thier range of telescopes and high grade coated lenses

A little time now can have many benefits, so take some time when purchasing and talk to the people offering the loupes.

The writer Andrew Cambridge has written lots of articles for health and denistry. Loupes are of interest to Andrew as they are a very partilcular to the industry they are used in.