Physical and microbiological quality of five different examination and surgical gloves before and after use in dental practice.

The purpose of the present study was to compare five different types of examination and surgical gloves physically and microbiologically before and after use in clinical dentistry. The prevalence of perforations was examined by the water inflation technique, and adhesion of bacteria to the glove surfaces was determined by use of a standard procedure with Streptococcus salivarius ATCC 13419. The effect of handwashing with a non-medicated soap and disinfectant soaps was finally examined. About 3% of the unused latex--and Elastyren gloves had perforations, while 6-7% of the unused vinyl gloves showed pinholes. Ten handwashes with a non-medicated soap did not affect the physical integrity of any of the glove types, while the disinfectant soap BLIX deteriorates about one third of the Elastyren gloves after 10 washes. In contrast, another disinfectant soap Hibiscrub did not affect these gloves. After use in clinical dentistry all vinyl gloves had perforations, while the other four types seemed unchanged. S. salivarius adhered to unused gloves of all types except for the hypoallergenic latex glove Biogel D. Highest numbers of cultivable bacteria were found for the non-sterile latex gloves and Elastyren gloves. The bacterial contamination was easily removed from all types by handwashing. Repeated handwashing decreased the adherence of S. salivarius to the non-sterile latex gloves and Elastyren gloves. After use in dental practice the adherence of S. salivarius seemed to be unchanged in relation to the situation, when the gloves were only washed up to 10 times. For the Biogel D gloves an increase in adherence of S. salivarius from zero before clinical use to a level comparable with the other glove types after clinical use was observed. Based on the findings in this study and compared with previous studies general recommendations for use of gloves in dental practice are formulated.