# Doctor head mirrors
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-head-mirrors/1001704
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [May 17, 2024, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-head-mirrors/1001704 "2024-05-17T15:49:15Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Cardigan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardigan)
#### Post date: [May 17, 2024, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-head-mirrors/1001704/1 "2024-05-17T15:49:15Z")
I had to google it to even learn what they’re called, but you know those round reflective metallic discs on a headband you see doctors being portrayed wearing?
[ ](https://th.bing.com/th/id/R.2f5214ead6445fa838da7d52425db06a?rik=2vn9l8%2bVZhUPBg&riu=http%3a%2f%2fimages.clipartpanda.com%2fdoctor-clip-art-784399_700688_doctor_clipart.png&ehk=ZiQ2p1000zctc619%2bHcFaUt2%2bm98OtSyoodf8vyzMt0%3d&risl=&pid=ImgRaw&r=0)
Thing is, have you ever actually seen a doctor wearing or using one of these? Seems like an archaic piece of equipment that would have fallen out of use roughly in tandem with improvements in battery and lighting technology. Probably also coincides with the fate of the stereotypical ‘doctor’s bag’ that physicians used to take along for house calls.
I recall witnessing a grand total of ONE doctor’s house call in my lifetime. My brother ended up getting stitches at home one time when we were preschoolers. It was the mid-late 1960s and we lived in a small town, for some context. Wonder why these sorts of memes are so slow to fade away.
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### Author:  [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Prof.Pepperwinkle)
#### Post date: [May 17, 2024, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-head-mirrors/1001704/2 "2024-05-17T15:57:11Z")
I remember my childhood doctor wearing one (this would’ve been in small town Indiana in the 1950’s-to-mid-60’s. House calls were commonplace. I don’t remember seeing one since.
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### Author:  [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)
#### Post date: [May 17, 2024, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-head-mirrors/1001704/3 "2024-05-17T15:59:27Z")
Only ever seen it on TV. Grew up in the 80s. The otoscope and pen light had long replaced head mirrors by then.
They are still commonly used in some places, mostly outside the US.
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### Author:  [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)
#### Post date: [May 17, 2024, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-head-mirrors/1001704/4 "2024-05-17T16:14:37Z")
I haven’t used a head mirror since the mid 80’s, but they were very useful tools in their day, before headlamps got small enough and bright enough to replace them, thanks to fiber optics. It took some practice to use them, to focus the reflected light where you wanted it and peer thru the hole in the mirror and do your work in the back of the throat (or other orifice). It provided nice direct shadow-free light, once you got the hang of it. I only ever used it for ENT exams.
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### Author:  [@InternetLegend](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/InternetLegend)
#### Post date: [May 17, 2024, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-head-mirrors/1001704/5 "2024-05-17T16:22:58Z")
The last one I saw was on my ophthalmologist six months ago, and he was actively using it.
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### Author:  [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)
#### Post date: [May 17, 2024, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-head-mirrors/1001704/6 "2024-05-17T16:32:15Z")
> [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#):
>
> I haven’t used a head mirror since the mid 80’s, but they were very useful tools in their day, before headlamps got small enough and bright enough to replace them, thanks to fiber optics.
Ha! Reminds me of my first visit to a dentist a couple of years ago after many years. (With all respect to dentists, I hate the procedures and basically just brush my teeth and hope for the best – it’s been working so far!) So some assistant sat me down in the dreaded dentist chair and I waited. When the dentist walked into the room, he looked like something out of Star Wars – all cloaked up (COVID was still rampant) and a laser-like beam of light protruding from his brow! It was actually pretty impressive!
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### Author:  [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)
#### Post date: [May 17, 2024, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-head-mirrors/1001704/7 "2024-05-17T16:43:41Z")
Even though they’re obsolete I think the idea behind them is brilliant and elegant in its simplicity.
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### Author:  [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)
#### Post date: [May 17, 2024, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-head-mirrors/1001704/8 "2024-05-17T17:15:30Z")
> [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#):
>
> o focus the reflected light where you wanted it and peer thru the hole in the mirror and do your work in the back of the throat (or other orifice). It provided nice direct shadow-free light
You know, I’d never thought about what they’re for or how to use them. Thank you for a very edifying post.
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### Author:  [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)
#### Post date: [May 17, 2024, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-head-mirrors/1001704/9 "2024-05-17T20:56:07Z")
I had a throat infection when I was six and the doctor used one in the exam. Haven’t seen one since. BTW, this was a loooong time ago.
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### Author:  [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)
#### Post date: [May 17, 2024, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-head-mirrors/1001704/10 "2024-05-17T21:04:45Z")
Our family doctor in the 40s, 50s, and 60s certainly used them (and he did make house calls–and carried oxygen in his car), Only thing he refused to do was deliver babies.
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### Author:  [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)
#### Post date: [May 17, 2024, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-head-mirrors/1001704/11 "2024-05-17T21:22:44Z")
> [@Hari\_Seldon](#):
>
> Only thing he refused to do was deliver babies.
I did deliveries from 1983 to 1990. Mostly joyous, punctuated by moments of panic and infrequent but profound tragedy. I was glad to stop doing OB.
Here’s how the head mirrors worked.
[ ](https://i.postimg.cc/sX1pKFcG/head-mirror.jpg)
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### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [May 17, 2024, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-head-mirrors/1001704/12 "2024-05-17T21:24:51Z")
Huh, I thought that the hole in the middle was just for mounting them to the headband. I didn’t realize you were supposed to look through it.
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### Author:  [@Nyvaak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nyvaak)
#### Post date: [May 17, 2024, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-head-mirrors/1001704/13 "2024-05-17T21:38:23Z")
My pediatrician wore and used one. That would be in the late 50s and early 60s.
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### Author:  [@Nyvaak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nyvaak)
#### Post date: [May 17, 2024, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-head-mirrors/1001704/14 "2024-05-17T21:40:45Z")
> [@Cardigan](#):
>
> I recall witnessing a grand total of ONE doctor’s house call in my lifetime
My pediatrician made a house call for me, when my (normal kid’s) limited vocabulary caused me to describe something in terms that sounded more serious than it was. That was the only house call I ever knew of until my parents were in their nineties, and their GP routinely made house calls for them. This was within the last decade.
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### Author:  [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)
#### Post date: [May 17, 2024, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-head-mirrors/1001704/15 "2024-05-17T21:43:05Z")
> [@Chronos](#):
>
> I didn’t realize you were supposed to look through it.
It’s pretty cool because you can focus on what you need to see and the reflection in the mirror lights it up. All without batteries.
I’m surprised it wasn’t used much outside of medicine.
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### Author:  [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)
#### Post date: [May 17, 2024, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-head-mirrors/1001704/16 "2024-05-17T22:17:32Z")
Well, mirrors with holes in them are marketed as heliographs or emergency signal mirrors, for instance. Old carbide/acetylene lamps come to mind as well; I even had a battery-powered headlamp with a parabolic mirror (the latter sending a beam of light in the direction you look at).
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### Author:  [@mixdenny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mixdenny)
#### Post date: [May 17, 2024, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-head-mirrors/1001704/17 "2024-05-17T22:30:37Z")
> [@Chronos](#):
>
> I didn’t realize you were supposed to look through it.
Me either. It does provide shadow free light all around the optical path and that concept is used for other things. “Donut” lamps that fit around the lens on cameras. Always wanted one of those back in my photography days. And LED ring lamps around the quill on drill presses and milling machines.
My Dewalt hand drill has just a single LED that is supposed to light up the working area but all it does is throw the shadow exactly where you _don’t_ want it.
[https://www.reddit.com/r/Machinists/comments/7t80hf/pimp\_out\_your\_milldrill\_press\_with\_a\_light\_ring/](https://www.reddit.com/r/Machinists/comments/7t80hf/pimp_out_your_milldrill_press_with_a_light_ring/)
[https://photofocus.com/photography/taking-a-look-at-macro-ring-lights/](https://photofocus.com/photography/taking-a-look-at-macro-ring-lights/)
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### Author:  [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)
#### Post date: [May 17, 2024, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-head-mirrors/1001704/18 "2024-05-17T22:47:56Z")
It burns away the skin and muscle on the patient’s lower jaw???
More to the point: I have never seen one in use, and I grew up in the 60s and 70s.
Our pediatrician supposedly made a house call once - when I was in infant and had caught chicken pox from one my brothers. For some reason, I don’t remember this.
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### Author:  [@themapleleaf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/themapleleaf)
#### Post date: [May 17, 2024, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-head-mirrors/1001704/19 "2024-05-17T23:03:16Z")
I have an extremely vague memory of a doctor putting it on when examining me once. I don’t remember which doctor; it was possibly during a hospital visit for a minor ailment, or maybe it was our family doctor, but this was a one-off at any rate and the doctor would have put it on to examine me, (s)he wouldn’t have been walking around wearing it. This was back in the 80s, and I do remember seeing many graphics of doctors weaing the head mirror as a kid and wondering why I didn’t normally see them wearing them in real life. The one example I remember would be a total one-off. Maaaybe I saw one or two others, exceptionally during the course of my entire life.
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### Author:  [@peedin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/peedin)
#### Post date: [May 17, 2024, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-head-mirrors/1001704/20 "2024-05-17T23:29:24Z")
Had my 6 month ENT checkup today. Dr H always uses one when he scopes my sinuses.
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