Day: February 26, 2023

DIY Dental Light with Elastic Headband

Cre­at­ed and updat­ed 2/26/2023

What: Den­tal light worn like a head­lamp with no loupes or safe­ty glass­es or face shield. Den­tal light mount­ed to elas­tic head­band.

Why: For those who don’t have or don’t want to use their loupes plus light. Suit­able for those who wear glass­es. When oper­a­to­ry lights fail. Pow­er out­age. I per­son­al­ly have trou­ble with loupes when I suf­fer from sinus issues (makes me nau­seous), but find I want the light, so this is a workaround to that. Plus, it costs 4x less than my loupes + light.

Sup­plies: Den­tal Light sys­tem (with bat­tery pack), elas­tic head­lamp strap, mount­ing kit (came with sys­tem), drill, drill bit, ruler, clamps, safe­ty glass­es, mark­er, cord ties (opt)

Cost: Light sys­tem ($595) + head­lamp strap and brack­et ($11.70) = $606.70

Time: 30 min­utes

*Note: Not intend­ed for dogs!*
*But they do look cute wear­ing it!!*

Process

  • Acquire sup­plies
And safe­ty glass­es!
Mount­ing kit/hardware
Elas­tic, adjustable head­lamp band with plas­tic brack­et
Back­side. It’s decent­ly thin
Used a 5⁄64″ bit

  • Mea­sure and mark drill holes. Be aware that if there are nuts to secure the screws, then to leave enough room on the oppo­site side for them
Marked mid­point and holes
Dry test. Looks good

  • Clamp, wear safe­ty glass­es, and then drill (be care­ful, I man­aged to make mine lop­sided)
Don’t clamp too tight that it breaks
Twist­ed the bit in to help the drill find foot­ing and not wan­der
It’s drilling time!
One down!
Uhhhh…how’d it get lop­sided…
Oh well. Tight­en­ing the screws
Nice
Oops…didn’t take into account the nuts. Would drill low­er next time.
Sol­id in there, even with­out the nuts
Ready
Set
Boom!

  • Option­al: Use cord orga­niz­ing ties to secure the cord to the side of the elas­tic head­band
Although the light comes with a clip for your clothes, a sec­ond one in the back works well to keep the cord out of the way

  • Done! Test it out!
Unwill­ing demo patient
My loupes with light is bet­ter, but also costs 4x as much.
It’s pret­ty com­fort­able. Made sure that the fuzzy side of the cable ties faced my skin