Introduction
Comment
Since around the mid 1980s dentists and their teams began to treat body fluids from patients as though they were infected. It became the norm to wear gloves when treating patients. The barrier function provided by these is critical in conferring protection from blood borne pathogens to the wearer. This may be compromised by manufacturing defects or breaches in integrity during function, such as can occur upon exposure to chemicals1 or upon penetration by dental instruments or equipment. By far the most commonly worn gloves are made of natural rubber latex. Unfortunately, allergies to this material are increasingly encountered by both clinical staff and patients.1 As a result manufacturers have produced alternatives made from synthetic latex such as polyvinyl chloride (PVC) or nitrile gloves. Clearly, each glove make and material type will have different properties and, in order to make an informed choice, the prospective purchaser should be informed of these.
This paper assesses the puncture resistance and stiffness of three makes of nitrile and one type of natural latex gloves by means of laboratory tests. A total of ten gloves of each make were examined. Samples of glove material were harvested from all regions of the glove for testing. Puncture resistance was determined by measuring the force required for both a hypodermic needle and stainless steel puncture probe to penetrate each sample under standardised conditions of stretch. These tests were also undertaken upon samples artificially aged to simulate clinical use.
In general, variations in the puncture force required to penetrate each make of glove were observed. Ageing appeared to increase this. No consistent rank order of puncture resistance was found. Interestingly, when the dental injection needle was used as the penetrometer, the palm regions of the gloves had the lowest puncture resistance followed by the ring and index finger regions and the thumb region. The index and middle finger regions displayed higher puncture resistance than all other regions.
Although the authors perceived that the latex gloves gave comparable puncture resistance with the nitrile gloves it was the ability of latex to reseal itself upon penetration that offered overriding additional protection. It should, however, be borne in mind that wearing clinical gloves both reduces the volume of blood transferred in needlestick injuries by 46-86%1 and is also said to wipe the needle clean.1 Since the effects of these two actions are cumulative, and the risk from transmission of an infectious agent is related to the amount of agent transmitted, the benefit of wearing gloves is considerable.1
