Dental News - Barrier protection is critical in dental professionals’ gloves

Dental Tribune Canada

Tue. 7 January 2014

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While caring for their patients, dental and health care professionals are constantly exposed to bodily fluids that may carry viruses and other infectious agents. It is therefore critical that the gloves these professionals use provide the best possible barrier protection. Many types of gloves are available today, but it is important to know that not all gloves have the same barrier capability, depending on the type of material used.

For example, natural rubber latex gloves have long been acknowledged for their very effective barrier properties, while non-latex gloves, such as vinyl (polyvinyl chloride), have inferior barrier capability as shown by numerous studies.

Other synthetic gloves, such as nitrile and polyisoprene, perform much better than vinyl but are more costly, especially polyisoprene gloves. Using gloves with inferior barrier capability could expose both the patient and user to harmful infections.

Malaysia is the world’s largest medical gloves exporter (latex and nitrile). Both quality and users’ safety are of top priority to the nation’s glove industry. To this end, a quality certification program (the Standard Malaysian Gloves, or the SMG) has currently been formulated for latex examination gloves.

All SMG-certified gloves must comply with stringent technical specifications to ensure the gloves are high in barrier effectiveness, low in protein and low in allergy risks, in addition to having excellent comfort, fit and durability — qualities that manufacturers of many synthetic gloves are trying to replicate.

Latex gloves are green products, derived from a natural and sustainable resource, and are environmentally friendly.

The use of low-protein, powder-free gloves has been demonstrated by many independent hospital studies to vastly reduce the incidence of latex sensitization and allergic reactions in workplaces.

More importantly, latex allergic individuals donning non-latex gloves can now work alongside their co-workers wearing the improved low-protein gloves without any heightened allergy concern.

However, for latex-allergic individuals, it is still important they use appropriate non-latex gloves, such as quality nitrile and polyisoprene gloves, that provide them with effective barrier protection.

Selecting the right gloves should be an educated consideration to enhance safety of both patients and users. For decades, gloves made in Malaysia have been synonymous with quality and excellence, and they are widely available in an extensive array of brands, features and prices.

They can be sourced either factory direct (www.mrepc.com/trade and click “medical devices”) or from established dental product distributors in the United States.

(Source: Malaysian Rubber Export Promotion Council)

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