Light curing guidelines for practitioners: a consensus statement from the 2014 symposium on light curing in dentistry, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada.

A two-day international symposium on Light Curing in Dentistry was held at Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada on May 29th and 30th, 2014. The symposium was attended by over 40 key opinion leaders from academia and industry who worked together to develop following advice to practitioners about light curing. The symposium participants were: Bob Angelo, Ahmed Abuelyaman, Suham Alexander, Sibel Antonson, Steve Armstrong, Oliver Benz, Uwe Blunck, Ellen Bruzell, John Burgess, Peter Burtscher, Liang Chen, Ivo Correa, Matt Dailey, Colin Deacon, Omar El-Mowafy, Jack Ferracane, Christopher Felix, Reinhard Hickel, Thomas Hill, Neil Jessop, Hilde Kopperud, Daniel Labrie, Hui Lu, Lori Moilanen, Bernhard Möginger, John O’Keefe, Joe Oxman, Frank Pfefferkorn, Jeffrey Platt, Richard Price, Jean-François Roulet, Fred Rueggeberg, Janine Schweppe, Adrian Shortall, Howard Strassler, Jeffrey Stansbury, Byoung Suh, Andreas Utterodt, David Watts, Stacy Wyatt. The support and active participation of Benco, Bisco, BlueLight Analytics, DENTSPLY, 3M-ESPE, Gigahertz-Optik, Henry Schein, Heraeus-Kulzer, Ivoclar Vivadent, Kerr, Patterson Dental, SDI, and Ultradent is gratefully acknowledged. Over the years, we have learned that light curing matters and that there are many pitfalls the dentist may encounter when light curing resins in the tooth. Inadequate or inappropriate light curing can so easily result in weaker adhesion to the tooth and compromised physical and chemical properties within the restorative material. These undesirable outcomes will likely have a negative influence on the longevity of the restoration you have just placed. For the benefit of your patients, please read and follow the following guidelines.