Tech Talk: Gloves
Distributor reps can offer dental customers comfort, grip, durability and excellent prices, all in one glove.
Your dental customers are looking for products that offer the best quality at the most reasonable prices, and gloves are no exception. Comfort generally tops their wish list of glove attributes, but manual dexterity, grip and durability are also important. Seldom will a rep find a dentist looking to pay more for more features. The good news for distributor reps, however, is that it is possible to offer dentists everything they want in a glove, at affordable prices.
What and how much?
There was a time when dentists could count on latex gloves to provide the most features at the lowest cost. But, in recent years, increased awareness of latex allergies have made doctors cautious about using these products. And, as rising fuel prices, coupled with increased demand for latex-based tires and other products, have driven up the price of latex gloves, dental customers are looking for alternatives.
Experts estimate that latex gloves currently have as much as a 70 percent market share. But, they acknowledge that the price gap between latex gloves and the increasingly popular nitrile glove is narrowing steadily every year. Today, a 100-count box of latex gloves usually sells for between $4 and $6. In comparison, synthetic gloves average $7.90 per 100-count box. Where there once was a $4 to $5 difference between the two, a box of latex gloves today is only a couple of dollars cheaper.
The majority of synthetic gloves sold to dentists each year are nitrile. Compared to a synthetic such as vinyl, which easily cracks and develops holes when bent out of shape, nitrile gloves are made of cross-linked materials, meaning they can bend and stretch without breaking. So, dentists can rely on them to provide excellent protection against bloodborne pathogens.
Some experts anticipate that neoprene gloves, which currently hold about a
5-percent market share, will become the next gold standard. They are said to offer comfort, fit and feel approaching that of latex gloves. However, they remain the most expensive glove on the market (about $8 to $10 for a 100-count box), well out of reach of cost-conscious dentists.
How to sell
Pricing is important to your dental customers, but performance is an even bigger factor. For this reason, distributor reps should steer their dental customers away from gloves that use fillers, such as calcium carbonate. While these products may be less expensive than brand names, they are said to rip more easily.
Gloves are a necessity for all dental practices, and distributor reps should keep in mind that dentists are not the only ones in the office wearing them. Dental hygienists and assistants also are required to use gloves, and often their opinion of a product weighs heavily on the office manager’s purchasing decision. While it is most cost-effective if everyone at a practice uses the same type of glove, it is important that they are satisfied with the ones they use.
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