Assessment of the risk of glove puncture during oral surgery procedures

The purpose of this study was to examine the incidence of glove puncture during stages of oral surgery procedures.

One surgeon was requested to wear one type of sterile operating gloves during the treatment of patients who required an oral surgery procedure under outpatient local anesthesia. Each surgical procedure was divided into three modules, namely, (I) administration of the anesthesia and raising of mucoperiosteal flap, (II) bone removal and delivery of the tooth or root, and, (3) soft tissue repair. A total of 450 gloves worn during these modules were examined for punctures with a water inflation method and 200 unused gloves were tested as controls.

The results were analyzed statistically with Fischer's exact test. A total of 12 punctures were recorded, indicating that a glove puncture occurred in 16% of the surgical procedures. Gloves from the left hand (the nonworking hand) in module III showed the highest incidence of punctures. One puncture was observed in the 200 gloves tested as controls. Statistical analysis indicated that glove puncture was significantly more likely to occur in gloves worn on the left (nonworking) hand overall as compared with gloves from the right hand (p = 0.02) and that glove puncture was significantly more likely to occur in gloves worn on the left hand in module III as compared with gloves from other modules (p = 0.01). Additional precautions may therefore be indicated during the soft tissue repair part of oral surgical procedures.