Patent Application
20110078841
Doctors, Dentists, Dental Hygienists, and other professionals use medical gloves while working with their patients. Professionals typically use medical gloves to protect health care workers from a range of hazards encountered in the workplace, including: biological exposures (bacterial and viral), chemotherapy drugs, sterilants, and chemicals. Although the use of medical gloves is essential, some difficulties are encountered that can make the professional's work more difficult to accomplish.
Many improvements have been made in the past that improve the usability of medical gloves. Medical gloves have been made to fit tightly to the skin using latex or non-latex materials. Rolled ends have been added to the wrist part of gloves to aid in donning or doffing the gloves and securing the gloves to a person's hand. Improvements to methods of manufacturing medical gloves have also occurred. However, there are still deficiencies that can be found in medical gloves. In some professions, medical gloves may be altered for specific reasons particular to that profession.
Exemplary embodiments provide a medical glove with a fulcrum finger grip, a device with a finger grip to be placed on a medical glove, and a method for making a medical glove with a fulcrum finger grip.
An exemplary glove includes an elastomeric material having a hand portion, the hand portion has a first finger, and the first finger comprises nodules. The first finger may be a ring finger location. The nodules may be positioned at the top of the ring finger location. The nodules are configured to provide enhanced grip of tools, such as dental instruments. An exemplary device includes an elastomeric material configured to fit over a gloved finger, with the elastomeric material comprising nodules. The nodules are on a first surface of the elastomeric material and a second surface of the elastomeric material is configured to be in contact with the gloved finger. The device may include a cuff.
An exemplary method includes creating a glove using elastomeric material and forming nodules on a first finger of the glove. The glove may be formed using a mold shaped like a hand, dipping the hand shaped mold into the elastomeric material, and drying the elastomeric material. The nodules may be formed on a first finger of the glove by dipping the glove into a mold or by placing droplets on the glove.
Exemplary embodiments of the invention will hereafter be described with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein like numerals denote like elements. The accompanying drawings are not drawn to scale.
Described herein is a medical glove with a fulcrum finger grip.
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The nodules 130 are located on the top one-third of the ring finger as shown. The nodules 130 may be located on a different finger, more than one finger, or all fingers. The nodules 130 may also cover a larger portion of a finger than the top one-third, or they may be located in the middle of a finger area with the top and bottom of the finger not having nodules 130, forming a ring of nodules around the middle of a finger. The nodules 130 allow for enhanced grip. The nodules 130 are raised geometric shapes that may be uniformly shaped and uniformly placed, or they may not be uniform. This exemplary embodiment utilizes uniformly shaped and uniformly placed nodules 130. The location of the nodules 130 on the ring finger, as shown, can provide benefits for many professionals. The nodules 130 may be placed on the glove 120 using methods that are known in the art. This exemplary embodiment uses a method of placing the glove 120, while still on the hand shaped form, into another mold filled with latex material. Other materials may also be used. Another exemplary method is to place droplets of elastomeric material onto the glove 120.
In some professions, the ring finger is considered a fulcrum finger. In dentistry, the fulcrum finger helps to stabilize a clinician's hand during instrumentation. In practice, a clinician places the pad of the fulcrum finger on a tooth, near to another tooth being instrumented. The fulcrum finger serves as the support beam for the hand during instrumentation. It enables the hand and an instrument to move as a unit. The fulcrum finger grip glove 110 provides a stable support for the fulcrum finger in environments such as wet, dry, or saliva filled. The fulcrum finger grip glove 110 will help to provide slip resistance and grip action during instrumentation and when gripping teeth. The fulcrum finger grip glove 110 also reinforces the use of the fulcrum finger to help prevent hand and finger fatigue. Patients will benefit from less slipping of dentists fingers, which can cause injury to the soft and hard tissue in the oral cavity. Other professions will have similar uses for the fulcrum finger grip glove 110.
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The word “exemplary” is used herein to mean serving as an example, instance, or illustration. Any aspect or design described herein as “exemplary” is not necessarily to be construed as preferred or advantageous over other aspects or designs. Further, for the purposes of this disclosure and unless otherwise specified, “a” or “an” means “one or more.” The exemplary embodiments may be implemented as a method, machine, or article of manufacture using standard programming and/or engineering techniques to produce software, firmware, hardware, and/or any combination thereof to control a device to implement the disclosed embodiments.
The foregoing description of exemplary embodiments have been presented for purposes of illustration and of description. It is not intended to be exhaustive or limiting with respect to the precise form disclosed, and modifications and variations are possible in light of the above teachings or may be acquired from practice of the invention. The embodiments were chosen and described in order to explain the principles of the invention and as practical applications of the invention to enable one skilled in the art to utilize the invention in various embodiments and with various modifications as suited to the particular use contemplated. It is intended that the scope of the invention be defined by the claims appended hereto and their equivalents.
