How To Take Care Of Dental Mirrors

Intraoral Mirrors are either chromium or titanium plated, front surface glass mirrors. Front surface coating ensures that there are no double or "ghost images". Rear surface mirrors give you a reflected image as well as a "ghost image" that is reflected off of the glass. You can verify this by placing your finger against a typical bathroom mirror. The mirrors reflect the light from the flash to fully illuminate the field being photographed
Titanium has a higher reflectance than either chromium or rhodium. This means a brighter image that is easier to focus on when taking occlusal and buccal mirror shots.
The Titanium Dioxide coating is also more durable than chromium and rhodium. While it is impossible to prevent scratches from front surface plated mirrors, our Titanium mirrors held up better than the other surfaces in an ISO 9352 test procedure (1000 cycles with an abrasive rubber).
Chromium occlusal and buccal shapes are double sided - all titanium shapes are single sided. Taking care of them is a different story. Using 2 x 2 napkins to wrap them and then autoclave will give them a longer lifespan.