There is no doubt that magnification can make an enormous difference to the quality and accuracy of almost dental treatment, from improving margin identification to identifying cracks and root canals more easily. But which type of magnification is best?
In broad terms, dental magnification begins at around 2X the size of the original image and progresses upwards from there. Dental operating loupes are a good first step, offering image enlargement of between 2X and 6X that of the original. After this, though, magnifying lenses start to become heavy and onerous to wear, making it advisable to switch to a dental microscope, which can increase magnification by as much as 20X.
Naturally, then it makes sense for surgical loupes to be employed in more routine tasks that are less detail-oriented than say, endodontic procedures or dental surgery, which may require increased detail or precision, such as finding root apexes and or elusive secondary canals, for example. Generally-speaking, then, loupes are ideal for general practice, including dental hygiene work. However, thanks to advances in optics, the introduction of dental telescopes means that surgical loupes can now offer an incredible amount of detail and up to 6X magnification quite comfortably without dramatically increasing weight. This largely thanks to the introduction of Through the Lens (TTL) technology which not only enables an increased field size but also eliminates much of the hardware that can cause loupes to go out of alignment.
Dental microscopes, on the other hand, offer levels of image detail unrivalled by loupes, as well as the option of taking stills photographs or video footage, both of which can be useful for patient education, teaching and record keeping. One thing to bear in mind though: the higher the magnification level, the narrower your width of field is likely to be, which is not going to be terribly useful if you are working in a large section of the oral cavity. Depth of field is also correspondingly lowered, which can mean having to make adjustments when it comes to the introduction of instruments or if you need to see further back into the mouth. (Lemonshase)