Do you remember panic ordering PPE in the spring of 2020? I do! I would stay up late from insomnia and surf the internet trying to find, purchase, and pay a premium for the PPE my team would need to open back up in May. One of the first things I hunted down was face shields, especially for my dental hygienists. With ultrasonics, the opportunity for aerosol spray into their faces is very high. That fact is true during a pandemic or not!
The face shields I found—and paid way too much for—were pretty weak. They had some kind of strange elastic and foam that went around the head. They were just a bit too small for our loupes. They would stretch around the loupes, but just barely. The real problem was our head lamps. The head lamp light would reflect off of the shield plastic and create a strange glare in addition to cutting down on the light in the field by more than half. It just wasn’t a great user experience. My hygienists struggled with them for a bit, and then the shields ended up in the garbage. It was almost as if someone who did not work in a dental office designed them. We can do better.
Fortunately, a periodontist has done better and has come up with the Loupe Shield. There are several great features of the Loupe Shield. Primarily, I love the fact that there is plenty of room for loupes. Loupe Shield fits around the head with an adjustable band. It has an adjustment knob that slides the entire shield frame forward or backward to accommodate almost any brand of loupes—up to 9 cm maximum! Having enough space for your loupes and light under a face shield changes the entire experience to a much more favorable one.
The other great feature about the Loupe Shield is the actual shield itself. Our previous shields had a ton of reflection and glare, which made them much harder to use. The Loupe Shield has a nano surface optical visor that allows 97% of light through with only 1% reflection. Typical plastic shields allow 87% of light through with up to 10% reflection. The extra light has made a notable difference and is a huge differentiator for this face shield.
Another differentiator is how sturdy the construction is on the Loupe Shield. This isn’t a piece of elastic glued to some foam. This shield is well made, stout, and can handle the day-to-day use and abuse that happens in clinical dentistry.
One thing my hygienists note after a day of wearing a face shield is how much stuff ends up on it. That stuff would have ended up all over their masks and faces. Gross. Base hit to right field for the Loupe Shield!
