Influence of wearing latex gloves on electric pulp tester readings in children

Electric pulp testers operated by completing an electric circuit. Latex examination gloves have been claimed to interrupt this circuit and lead to false-negative results. This study was conducted to evaluate the influence of wearing latex gloves on electric pulp tester (EPT) readings. The pulps of 80 maxillary permanent incisors of 22 children 10-13 1/2 years old were tested using the Pelton & Crane 'Vitapulp' instrument. Each tooth was tested twice: with gloves and with bare hands. Teeth failing to respond to the EPT without gloves were excluded from the study. All EPT readings ranged between 1 and 9.5. Five teeth gave the same responses with gloved and ungloved hands. Only five teeth did not respond when gloves were worn, and all of these gave readings near the top of the EPT scale when tested without gloves. The other 70 teeth presented significantly higher readings with gloves than without gloves. It is concluded that removal of examination gloves during the operation of the EPT is necessary only if no response is obtained.