REVEAL™ Loupes Facilitate Early, Fluorescence-Guided Treatment
Compendium features peer-reviewed articles and continuing education opportunities on restorative techniques, clinical insights, and dental innovations, offering essential knowledge for dental professionals.
September 1, 2022
Volume 43, Issue 8, September 2022
Page(s):
Gal Hiltch, DMD, has found an enlightening new tool to help his patients recognize the "red flags" in their own mouth. "As the owner of a private practice, I am constantly looking for new technologies to improve professionally and increase the value of my clinic," says the Israeli-based private practitioner.
"I was lucky enough to have been introduced to the REVEAL™ Fluorescence Guided Dentistry system by my friend and mentor, Prof. Dr. Liviu Steier, its inventor. My first operative experience with REVEAL was a visual surprise," Hiltch exclaims. "Information that is invisible using normal light just naturally ‘pops up' when using REVEAL."
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Available from Designs for Vision, REVEAL is described as "wearable fluorescence guided dentistry" that utilizes a blue excitation headlight with specially filtered eyewear to provide hands-free fluorescence visualization in real-time.
"Prior to using REVEAL, I could only diagnose the consequences of a bacterial infection and not its activity or precise location," Hiltch explains. "Today, using REVEAL, I am empowered to directly observe the fluorescent byproducts of bacterial infections. It can be as basic as seeing previously ‘invisible' mature plaque on teeth and implants, or directly guiding me during caries or calculus removal."
"Most restorative and periodontal treatment plans begin with the patient wearing protective eyeglasses and holding a mirror. This way, patients can directly observe the red autofluorescence from the bacterial infection in their mouth," Hiltch says. "This demonstration facilitates the acceptance of the treatment plan, as patients usually ask ‘what can I do to remove the infection?'"
Using REVEAL, in essence, provides clinicians visual information to support decision-making and facilitate proper treatment options in cariology, endodontics, oral hygiene, periodontology/implantology, and restorative dentistry. "Inflamed soft tissues appear substantially darker than their surroundings under fluorescence conditions," Hiltch notes. "An infection around an implant or periapical regions of a root would result in inflammatory bands. Lymphocyte infiltration into these regions promotes a breakdown of fluorescent components in tissue collagen, which leads to alterations in the natural optical fluorescence of its stroma."
"Patients can directly see the ‘red flags' inside their mouth," he says. "The ‘red flags' help them discover regions they normally overlook during routine oral hygiene practice."
The visual effects of REVEAL help Hiltch communicate more directly with his patients and be confident in his treatment selection. Through "the use of light" he can implement minimally invasive dentistry, removing infected tissue while sparing healthy tissue. "Disease diagnosis and visual treatment guidance using REVEAL has raised my practice to the reliable point of care I want for my patients."
Gal Hiltch, DMD
Private Practice,
Rishon Le Ziyyon, Israel
Designs for Vision, Inc.
800-345-4009
designsforvision.com
