What are loupes and why your dentist must wear them?

Loupes are the funny magnifying glasses that dentists wear, like those in the photo above.

The main benefit is that they allow us to see everything in your mouth magnified and in much better detail.  Dental treatment is very precise; 1mm can make a huge difference in terms of success or failure of treatment.  So if we can see things in more enlarged view, then obviously they are able to do a more precise job.  You can’t treat what you can’t see.

I began wearing loupes early in my career and I feel like they took the quality of treatment to a much higher level. These days I have a spare set of loupes, as there is no way I would be performing dental treatment on a patient without them.  I know I can’t do my best without them.

It is like the DSLR (digital SLR) photos enlarged that we take of your teeth and show you when you come in for your appointments, it allows you and us to see your teeth up close.  These images are similar to what we see with loupes, everything is enlarged and can be seen in fine detail. It is just not possible to do precise work without them.

No matter how good your dentist’s eyesight is; it is simply not possible to do precise, good dental treatment without loupes or some form of magnification.