Dental gloves are a crucial part of any practice.
Wearing these ensures that your dental practice remains safe from the spread of infection and disease between the patients and the medical practitioners.
It minimizes the risk of exposure, hence, it is crucial to wear the best quality gloves.
This article discusses the importance of dental gloves, their types and how you can choose the right one for your daily use.
Let’s dig deeper into it below.
Types of Gloves in Dentistry
Medical glove types can differ in their use and their material.
When it comes to material, there are three main types:
- Latex
- Vinyl
- Nitrile
Latex gloves are the most common ones found in dental practices.
It has high dexterity, resistance and adaptability.
It has a thin material but it offers protection against chemicals and body fluids.
Hence, it provides protection against infection and is a good barrier.
Besides, it also has high flexibility.
That said, they also come with their set of cons.
You should avoid oils and hydrocarbon derivates around them.
If there are puncture holes in them, they are rather hard to detect.
It can also lead to latex allergy.
Moreover, it has a high dermatitis potential.
While these are very suitable for inorganic chemicals, latex gloves are not the best option for organic solvents.
Vinyl Gloves
These gloves are cheaper, however that also means that they are less durable.
They have less resistance, less adpatabinility but greater permeability.
Besides that, these gloves do not fit the hand that well.
Hence, not allowing for unlimited dexterity and increasing the likelihood of the glove tearing down.
You cannot use it with alcohol, glutaraldehyde or chemotherapeutic drugs.
Moreover, these are resistant to oils and ozone.
Alongside that, they are latex-free, anti-static, and have medium tensile strength and elasticity.
Plus, there is also limited chemicals that you can use along with them.
The third option is to use nitrile gloves.
Let’s find out about that in detail below!
Nitrile Gloves
These are all purpose superlative drugs.
You can use them for several applications.
It has a resistant to biological agents and chemical products.
Thus, it can act as a good barrier for solvents, hydrocarbons, oils, and particular acids plus bases.
While they have good chemical resistance, nitrile gloves are also puncture-reisstant.
If there is any damage or tear on these gloves, it is easily visible.
That means even if it is about three times more puncture resistant than latex gloves, if any puncture occurs, the glove tears immediately.
This may look like a disadvantage of the gloves, but it isn’t.
In fact, if the glove tears way on its own then this is your sign that it needed replacement.
Hence, it was already time to throw them away so that your hands will remain safe from infections.
Nitrile gloves also protect your hands from unexpected chemical splashes that may occur in a medical setting.
Choosing Between Dental Gloves Nitrile vs Latex vs Vinyl
The material of the gloves is an important factor in determining whether they fit your dental use.
It is an important dental tool.
However, dentists may prefer using the gloves according to their needs.
For instance, latex gloves may be a popular choice for surgical procedures.
These are of wrist or arm length and can work well in surgical procedures because of their dexterity.
They are also biodegradable and natural usually made from rubber.
Though, these are not suitable for everyone.
Some people may suffer from latex allergy.
In that case, nitrile gloves are a great option because they are puncture resistant.
Plus, its material is medical grade synthetic rubber.
If you need cheap disposable gloves, then there are vinyl gloves.
These are made of allergy-free synthetic material.
Hence, choosing gloves depends on its use.
Use of Dental Gloves Types
Powdered and Powder-free Gloves
More gloves these days are powder-free rather than powdered.
The nitrile gloves are usually powder-free.
Plus, they do not contain any residue and reduce teh risk of allergies.
The powdered gloves were launched for easier donning and wearing comfort.
They were lined with cornstarch for that purpose.
However, that did not suit people resulting in allergies on the skin due to patient senstivity.
So pwder-free gloves come more in use.
These are further available in two forms.
Chlorinated and Non-chlorinated
Chlorinated gloves are chlorine treated.
They do not have typical powder but still retain the benefits of the pwdered gloves.
The chlorine free gloves that are the non-chlorinated gloves are like regular examination gloves. More on that below.
However, without the strong odor of chlorine.
That said, they are also lined by silicone or gel coating.
This coating will more probably cause allergies than the chlorinated gloves.
This brings us too…
Examination or Surgical Gloves
The examination gloves are not for surgical procedures and vice versa.
Surgical gloves are sterile.
Hence, their use is mostly in oral surgeries.
Though, as the name suggest examination gloves come in while examining patients.
This involves procedures that include contact with the mucous membrane.
Both of these gloves are medical grade, hence they come in the dentists’ use for examination and surgical needs.
However, the surgical gloves have better tactile sensation, its fit is more accurate than that of the examination ones and it is also better in quality.
So now you know all of the different types of the gloves, their use as well as materials.
It is time to find out what you should consider while purchasing the gloves for your dental gloves.
Dental Gloves Selection Considerations
Before you buy them from dental gloves suppliers, especially in bulk, it is important to consider these factors.
The Manufacturing Process
The manufacturing process of gloves involves:
- Dipping glove precursors in a liquid solution
- Rinsing, curing and stripping of gloves
- Lastly drying these
If the manufacturer is making pwder-free gloves, then it further requires processing.
In order to make first rate quality medical gloves, high quality standards during the manufacturing process are important.
This will ensure that the product has excellent physical properties.
You can get the barrier performance data from the manufacterr or reseller to assess the quality of the procedure. This brings us to…
Barrier Integrity
The barrier integrity of the gloves influences and indicates their potential in infection control.
It is the level of protection that the gloves offer from pathogens.
One way to assess that is the absence of holes or tears in the gloves.
The manufacturing process as well as the base material material of the gloves affects its barrier integrity.
Hence, while choosing the gloves consider these two factors and more.
The Base Glove Material
We have already discussed the base material of the dental gloves.
It is either a natural material which is natural rubber latex or synthetic ones such as polyvinyl chloride (PVC/ vinyl) or acrylonitrile-butadiene (nitrile).
All these materials have their own strengths and drawbacks.
Of all three materials, nitrile gloves are the most durable.
Moreover, both nitrile and latex are preferable over vinyl for procedures that involve patient content and need good dexterity.
Aspects of the Gloves
One aspect to keep in mind is the barrier integrity.
However, others such as donning it easily matter too, after all you want to wear it quickly.
Its safe grip and adequate fitting, perceptible sensitivity and easy removability from the container is important too.
So is the flexibility that allows for convenient movement.
Choosing Sizes and Other Considerations for Dental Gloves
While choosing the dental gloves for your practice, it si extremely important to ensure taht they fit you.
This allows you to work safely by reduce the transmission of infection and also comfortably so that your hand is not constricted for longer periods of time.
The fit should just be right because a smaller glove will break easily and also tire you down.
On the other hand, a larger size can result in loss of sensitivity and feel hence, it affects work performance.
Measure the length or the contour of your hand to find out your size.
Take the measurement of the widest point in your hand from the knuckles and make a fist to know the width of the gloves that ranges from XS to XXL.
Similarly, for the length measure from the bottom edge of the palm to the tip of the middle finger.
If you lie anywhere between two sizes, it is best to choose the smaller one.
Besides that also remember these points while choosing the gloves:
- The procedure matters, choose the gloves according to the procedure i.e. examination or surgery.
- There should be enough tactile sensation and not reduce after wearing gloves. Their thickness, slipperiness and grip matters.
- Check for allergies and skin sensitivity.
- Get ambidextrous gloves that allow usage of both right and left hands.
- Lastly, get the right fit, especially if you are buying in bulk.
Finally,
Dental gloves are an important part of a dental clinic.
Make sure you have several in the office before you behin taking patients and athey are always stoked up.
Contact Engiomed and see our products in case you want other equipments and tools for your practice.
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