One common question is how to choose an exam glove and what exactly the differences are when it comes to the materials. Over at Lexicon Medical Supply, we want to make it easy for you to find and select the right glove for you. There are a few different options when it comes to choosing a type of glove for medical exams. The material include vinyl, nitrile or latex. And among those materials you can find variations such as powdered or powder free, and sterile versus non-sterile (in nitrile or latex). Each material is distinct in that vinyl is made from plastic, latex comes from a tree source, and nitrile is a petroleum based product. There are strengths and drawbacks to each glove type. (To see our selection of gloves go to:
www.lexiconsupply.com/gloves)
Level of protection, fit, and cost are the most common factors to consider when choosing a glove preference.
When looking into glove fit one should evaluate the snugness, stretch, and dexterity of the glove. To decide between vinyl, nitrile, or latex gloves one can evaluate the level of thickness to get an idea of how much dexterity the glove will provide. The thickness of gloves range from 3 mil to 9 mil. Although for common exams and tattoos a thickness of 4 or 5 mil is more than sufficient. The gloves we offer at Lexicon Medical Supply are 4-5 mil in thickness. The vinyl gloves we sell are about 4 mil thick. The nitrile gloves are 4-5 mil in thickness, whereas the latex gloves found at Lexicon Medical Supply are 5 mil. The vinyl gloves offer a comparable amount of dexterity, meaning you can move and bend your fingers and hand with ease, however vinyl offer the least amount of stretch which will affect dexterity to some degree. The nitrile gloves provide a nice range of dexterity stretch and snugness but are not quite as comfortable as latex. By and large latex offers the greatest degree of stretch, snugness, and dexterity.
If cost is the most important variable there is no doubt that vinyl are by far the cheapest, followed by nitrile, with latex being the more expensive glove. That doesn't necessarily mean a cheap
glove is going to mean an exposure risk.
For many tasks, lower levels of protection are completely adequate. For a basic patient exam or office visit, with a low risk patient population a vinyl exam may meet your needs just fine. The more personal and invasive the exam is, a higher level of protection is advised. When you look for additional factors such as a specific color and sterility the cost of the glove increases. Some people place greater importance of the color of the glove than others. Many people in the tattoo or EMT industries like a black glove because they hide blood and body fluids better than a white or light blue glove (and the black gloves also look pretty cool). If cost weighs most heavily in your glove preference then Vinyl will be the best option for you.
Level of protection is a distinction that divides gloves into general purpose or exam grade. Gloves that are used in areas such as food service or janitorial purposes don't necessarily require a higher standard of protection as compared to situations that potentially involve contact with bodily fluids. In the past, people looked at thickness (measured in mil) to determine the protection that a glove offered. As technology and manufacturing has evolved, the thickness of the glove no longer is used asan indication of protection,but more as an indication of comfort and dexterity. The level of protection is measured by a quality standard the FDA uses to determine the degree to which a batch of gloves fails a quality evaluation. The Acceptable Quality Level (AQL) is a measurement used to test the quality o
f a batch of gloves. One of the ways in which this is determined is to actually take a sampling of the gloves and fill them with a liquid and look to see if there are any leaks or breaks in the glove. The lower the amount of gloves have leaks, the higher the quality, so a lower AQL score translates to a higher quality glove. This is how gloves are separated into general purpose use, exam grade gloves, or even surgical grade gloves.
| - |
Vinyl |
Nitrile |
Latex |
| Fit: |
Loose |
Snug |
Snug |
| Dexterity: |
Lowest |
Moderate |
Best |
| Stretch: |
Lowest |
Moderate |
Best |
| Color: |
Clear |
Blue or
Black |
White or
Black |
| Cost: |
Cheapest |
Moderate |
Highest |
| Sterility: |
Not
available |
Available |
Available |
| Drawbacks: |
Poor fit |
|
Allergies |
| Strengths: |
Low cost, No
allergies |
Moderate
cost, Nice fit and dexterity, No Allergies |
Good fit and
dexterity |
Wondering what size? Measure across your palm in mm. The following table will help you determine what size gloves you should purchase.
| Palm Width - Glove Size (in mm) |
|
|
| - | Small | Medium | Large | X-Large |
| Latex | 80 | 95 | 111 |
|
| Vinyl | 85 | 95 | 105 | 115 |
| Nitrile | 80 | 95 | 110 | 120 |
|
|
|
| www.Tradex.com |
To view Lexicon Medical Supply's selection of gloves go to:
www.lexiconsupply.com/gloves