Prevalence of Allergy to Latex Gloves among Dental Practitioners and its Association with Other Materials

Statement of the problem: Dental gloves are worn to protect dental care providers from contamination during contact with mucus membranes, blood and saliva. The prevalence of latex allergy has progressively increased due to the widespread use of protective disposable wears, especially latex gloves, among health care workers (HCW) in the past decade. The prevalence of latex allergy among HCW of Iran is not clear. On the other hand, the rate of sensitivity of sensitive dentists to other allergens is unknown. Purpose: The aim of this study was to evaluate prevalence of latex allergy among a selected population of Iranian dentists and its association with allergy to other dental materials.Materials and methodsA total of 140 dentists who worked in the clinics and offices were evaluated in this cross-sectional/descriptive study. The dentists were asked to fill out a questionnaire concerning the allergy history. Fisher’s exact test was used for testing the relation of variables. The Microsoft Excel and SPSS for Windows 16.0 were used for data analysis.ResultsBased on questionnaires, 45 dentists (33.8%) had hypersensitivity to latex gloves. Hypersensitive dentists to latex gloves were also hypersensitive to non-powdered gloves, temporary crowns and impression materials. Regarding other materials, there was no significant difference between the two groups.ConclusionIt is recommended that the subjects who are susceptible to latex allergy based on the questionnaire be referred for skin tests.