Can Plant-Derived Oils Enhance Dental Mirror Visibility?

Objectives: Dental mirrors are essential for proper diagnoses and treatment, and their effectiveness is hindered when visibility is limited. Dental mirror anti-fog solutions have been proposed to address this issue. However, as far as we know there is no data on the efficacy of these solutions. Plant-derived oils are hydrophobic in nature, translucent, and inexpensive. We hypothesized they could be used to repel water, exerting an anti-fog effect. This study investigated the effectiveness of plant-derived oils in enhancing dental mirror visibility during operative procedures.
Methods: A single operator made all Class-I preparations in plastic teeth (#3), under full-isolation, copious water-spray, and indirect vision. Mirrors were coated with peppermint (P); oregano (O); clove (CL); cinnamon (CIN) or thyme (T) oils. Control consisted of neat/dry mirrors (no-oil). The order of mirror to be used was randomized to reduce operator bias. The six Class-I-preps were completed within a 40-minute session. This experiment was repeated 3x. The working time (WT), number of pauses to clear water/debris off the mirror (nP=number-of-pauses/procedure), time elapsing from procedure beginning to the first pause (1^st-pause) and presence/absence of residues on mirrors were analyzed and compared using chi-square tests.
Results: The shortest WT (in seconds) was achieved by P-coated (87.2±6.3) and no-oil-coated mirrors (89.2±4.5). Differences in WT between these and the other oils (O=107.0±4.3; CL=119.2±8.1, CIN=104.1±6.9 and T=100.1±7.3) were significant (p<0.001). P-coated and no-oil-mirrors exhibited significantly lower nP (P-coated=4±1; no-oil=6±3) and took longer to reach out the 1^st-pause endpoint (in seconds) (P-coated=30.5±8; no-oil=35.2±6). The most critical performance in nP and 1^st-pause was shown for O-coated followed by CL- and T-coated mirrors (p<0.01-in relation to P- and no-oil-coated). No debris/oil residues were left on P-coated mirrors, while sticky/oily residues were seen for all other oils.
Conclusions: Among tested oils, peppermint appeared to be the only oil worth exploring as an anti-fog option for dental mirrors.