In an exciting new development, Photran has produced a range of curved sapphire fibre tips for dental laser delivery systems. These removable LASER GUIDE™ tips simplify the design, improve the reliability of dental handpieces and can be sterilised.
The single crystal sapphire fibres transmit the popular Er:YAG 2.94 µm wavelength, are very robust and completely non-toxic. Traditionally, the trunk delivery fibre transmits light from the laser to the handpiece where typically a 90 degrees bending mirror is used to direct the beam into a straight sapphire tip. Mirrors and alignment systems are expensive and may become misaligned. Photran’s curved sapphire tips can be butted directly against the trunk delivery fibre and thus re-direct the beam on to the LASER GUIDE™ tip, thus replacing the mirror and other optics in the handpiece.
The usual design uses for a sapphire trunk fibre of 425 µm diameter and a slightly larger diameter curved tip. Tips are available in diameters of 425 µm, 600 µm and 700 µm and can be made to re-direct the beam to most angles of choice, usually 50 to 80 degrees. Curved tip designs usually have a 10 - 15 mm radius of curvature and greatly reduce the weight, size and complexity of handpieces.
