New prism technology brings improved levels of accuracy to clinicians’ work

In the past, prism loupes were extremely heavy and uncomfortable to wear and both their field of view (FoV) and particularly their Depth of Field (DoF) were drastically limited.

In effect, clinician's had to choose between struggling with heavy and difficult to use loupes, or to struggle through with lower magnifications in order to perform the work they needed to accomplish.

In order to prepare higher magnification prism loupes for effective clinical use, SurgiTel have developed numerous patented innovations that have now made prisms lightweight and easy to use. The key design requirements were that they needed to develop loupes that were lightweight, with both a generous field-of-view and depth-of-field and which could be mounted in both Front-Lens-Mounted (FLM) and Through-the-Lens (TTL) styles.

SurgiTel first developed the Compact Line of loupes (patented) in FLM style by creating new rack designs with stabilisation features (patented) for support and stability. To make prism TTL loupes, SurgiTel's own Titanium frame called the Aero (patented) was created which provided the necessary support and stability. Then SurgiTel further developed miniaturization by adding 3.0x, 3.5x and 4.5x prism magnifications to the Micro Line.

Today, due to the improved ergonomic posture that SurgiTel designs provide, clinicians are now sitting up straighter and further away from their patients and as a result, may not realise that using the same traditional lower magnifications are seeing less detail on average than their predecessors. More than ever, clinicians will need higher magnifications than the old standards. Thanks to SurgiTel's new prism designs, higher magnification can be worn comfortably all day even with the added weight of a headlight.

Clinicians using the lightweight and easy to use prism loupes now have greatly enhanced vision. Clinicians have reported seeing things they've never seen before, doing their work in new ways and achieving results they never thought were possible.

Dr Michael Cahill, from the Sydney suburb of Freshwater, recently purchased a pair of SurgiTel's new prism loupes along with a headlight and attributes them to him now being able to improve the quality of care he is able to provide his patients.

"The higher magnification of 5.5x allows better attention to detail especially in complex restorative and molar endodontics, in which I have a particular interest," Dr Cahill said. "The headlight is fantastic - it allows for optimal lighting in those areas of the mouth that are usually difficult to see. These loupes are more comfortable than my previous loupes that were only 3.5x magnification. I couldn't be happier; this package was well worth the investment and makes coming to work a pleasure."

So whatever magnification you use, have you tried going higher?