Qray Intraoral Camera Lineup: Which Device, When?
When practice owners first look at the Qray intraoral camera lineup, the question is almost always the same: which of the four does my practice actually need? The names are similar, but the form factors — and the moments they are used chairside — are not. This post maps each device to a point in the clinical workflow, so you can picture how it fits your team's day rather than read a spec sheet.
How is a fluorescence intraoral camera different from a standard one?
A standard intraoral camera magnifies what you can already see. A fluorescence intraoral camera shows what is hard to see. White-light cameras enlarge calculus, stain and restorations — things that are visible, just small. Qray devices use 405 nm light to show green fluorescence from sound tooth structure, red fluorescence from biofilm that has matured for three days or more, and the loss of fluorescence where enamel is demineralizing. We explain the science in Quantitative Light-Induced Fluorescence: What 405 nm Shows.
That makes every image both an explanation and a record. A white-light photo tends to get a polite nod. A red area on screen gets a question — "What is that?" — and that question is where the conversation starts.
What does each Qray device do?
All four share the same fluorescence principle; they differ in field of view and where they sit in the workflow. Each device can be summarized in one line:
| Device | One-line definition | Chairside moment |
|---|---|---|
| Qraycam Pro | Camera that captures the full dental arch in fluorescence | New-patient and recall screening — caries, cracks, plaque and restoration issues in one wide view |
| Qraypen C | Pen-style device for fluorescent, high-resolution images of specific teeth | The painful tooth, the proximal surface, the suspected crack — assessed up close, with fluorescence changes recorded for comparison |
| Qrayview Pro | A simple, practical non-imaging device for clinical use | A quick check during prophylaxis or treatment that red biofilm has been fully removed |
| Qscan Plus | A personal wellness device for home use | Patients check their own plaque between visits — "If it's red, it's time to act" |
Qraycam Pro goes wide; Qraypen C goes deep. Analogies clinicians already know help here. Qraycam Pro gathers information about the whole mouth in a single image — the way a panoramic gives you the overview — and handles like a DSLR. Qraypen C is designed like an intraoral camera: after the screening and hygiene care, it lets you look closely at fluorescence changes within an individual tooth. The pen's role is sometimes compared to a periapical view. These are analogies for scope, not claims of equivalence: fluorescence adds functional information to your radiographs; it does not stand in for them.
Qrayview Pro answers one question: did we get it all? It is used to confirm that red-fluorescent biofilm has been removed during treatment. Because it does not store images, it is fast — look, confirm, move on.
Qscan Plus extends care beyond the operatory. Patients use the same principle at home to see their plaque and check their brushing. Typical uses include verifying brushing, checking around braces and orthodontic appliances, patient education in the clinic, and home care for busy patients and families.
What changes when you pair Qraycam Pro with Qraypen C?
You can screen with the camera and zoom in with the pen, and the numbers stay consistent. An independent team at Kyung Hee University (Oh et al., Sci Rep 2022) captured 178 teeth from 61 patients with both devices and compared the same lesions. The mean difference in fluorescence loss measured by the two devices was close to zero. For occlusal caries, accuracy ranged from 0.81 to 0.96 across the two devices; for proximal caries it was lower, 0.52 to 0.71, and the authors recommend reading proximal surfaces together with radiographs.
Clinicians who use the lineup every day describe the same pairing. In practice, the devices hygiene teams tend to use most are Qraycam Pro, for full-smile and occlusal images, and Qraypen C, for intraoral close-ups — and for many clinicians, what matters is that the pairing works chairside. The typical workflow: Qraycam Pro for the whole-mouth exam, Qraypen C for the individual tooth that hurts.
| Clinical moment | Start with | Read alongside |
|---|---|---|
| New patient or recall overview | Qraycam Pro | Visual exam, radiographs as indicated |
| Painful tooth, suspected crack, proximal surface | Qraypen C | Radiographs, symptom testing |
| Confirming biofilm removal after prophylaxis | Qrayview Pro | Before/after explanation to the patient |
| Between visits | Qscan Plus | Compare with in-office images at the next visit |
What should you set up in the first week?
Because fluorescence is compared across repeat captures taken under the same conditions, the capture routine matters more than the hardware. Four basic rules:
- Darken the room.
- Retract lips, tongue and saliva away from the target tooth.
- Clean the surface before you capture.
- Keep distance and angle consistent — use the W-block with Qraypen C to fix the camera position.
Capture time is short. Even in a workflow that sets recall intervals by biofilm level, the capture itself often takes about a minute. When hygienists capture before and after prophylaxis and the dentist rechecks only the teeth that need it with Qraypen C, the added chair time stays small.
With children, speed is everything. Kids have limited patience, so a fast whole-mouth pass with Qraycam Pro is recommended — turn it into a "photo game," and bring parents in to see the screen. Mention up front that there is no probe and no radiation.
Where does this fit in the US evidence picture?
The evidence base is broader than any single study. QLF has been studied for two decades, and Korea added QLF-based caries examination to its national health insurance fee schedule in 2021 — a public-policy validation of the method. In the US, the relevant procedure code for non-ionizing quantitative exams is CDT D0600; reimbursement depends on the plan.
What's next
A Qray image does not end at the chair. It is recorded in LINKDENS and sent to the patient's phone as a report. The patient looks again at home — and if they use Qscan Plus, they see the same signal between visits. At the next appointment, you put today's image next to the last one, and the conversation changes from "brush better" to "look how much this has improved." That is why AIOBIO offers Qray and LINKDENS together: the device that makes it visible and the record that keeps it connected. For a practice owner, that is how one-time treatment turns into ongoing care, carried forward through QBLISScare.
FAQ
Q. Does a Qray intraoral camera diagnose caries?
A. No. Qray devices make early changes and biofilm visible and record them for comparison over time to support clinical judgment. The dentist diagnoses, together with the visual exam and radiographs.
Q. I already have a standard intraoral camera. Why add a fluorescence intraoral camera?
A. They show different things. A standard camera magnifies what is visible under white light; a fluorescence intraoral camera adds information that is hard to see, such as mature biofilm (red) and early demineralization (loss of fluorescence).
Q. Qraycam Pro or Qraypen C — which comes first?
A. It depends on your workflow. A common approach is to start with Qraycam Pro for the overview and use Qraypen C for the teeth that need a closer look. A demo is the easiest way to test both against your own schedule.
References
- Oh SH, Choi JY, Kim SH. Evaluation of dental caries detection with quantitative light-induced fluorescence in comparison to different field of view devices. Sci Rep. 2022;12:6139. DOI