Surgical versus examination gloves in exodontia: A randomized, double-blind, controlled trial

Context: In developing countries like India, where money set aside for public health, is <1% of the gross domestic product, routine use of surgical gloves for examining patients as well as for minor surgical procedures can be a drain on the resources. Hence, we decided to conduct a study to ascertain whether it is necessary to use surgical gloves in routine dental extractions. Aims: This study aims to conduct a study to ascertain whether it is necessary to use surgical gloves in routine dental extractions. Materials and Methods: A comparative, prospective, randomized, double-blind study was carried out in one hundred patients for nonsurgical extractions of multiple teeth, performed aseptically. Microbiology specimens were taken from the glove's surfaces according to a standard protocol. An independent assessor, who was blinded for the procedure, examined the patients on the 7th postoperative day. Data were entered into Microsoft Excel sheet and subjected to Statistical analysis using SPSS Version 20. Statistical Analysis: Paired “t”-test, unpaired “t”-test and Karl Pearson's Coefficient test were used to calculate the scientific data and association between variables. A P = 0.05 or less was considered statistically significant while 0.001 or less, as statistically, highly significant. Results: A total of 100 patients who had 356 extractions were obtained at the end of the study. Paired “t”-test showed the highly significant difference from pre- to post-operative colony forming units at 1% level of significance (P < 0.01). Conclusions: The present study concluded that the use of surgical gloves does not offer a definite advantage over examination gloves in minimizing the rate of infections following extraction of teeth.