Nitrile Gloves by the Case: What a 10-Box Case Covers Your Clinic

August 22, 2026

For procurement leads at clinics, dental practices, and long-term care homes, one case of nitrile gloves holds 1,000 gloves — 10 boxes of 100 — and typically covers 2 to 6 weeks of routine use depending on patient volume. Working backwards from that number tells you exactly how many cases to order per quarter. Here is the case-level math for Canadian facilities.

Case buying is the middle ground between retail boxes and full pallet programs. It fits practices that want wholesale pricing without distributor contracts.

What Is Actually in a Case

A standard case is 10 boxes of 100 examination gloves. The INTCO wholesale case (TouchFlex/Advancare) and the CliniEco 4mil bulk case both follow this format.

A sealed case weighs roughly 4.5 to 5 kilograms and occupies about the footprint of a shoebox. That small footprint is why case stock works for clinics with limited storage.

Each box inside is individually sealed, so opening one case does not expose the rest of the inventory to air or handling.

How Long a Case Lasts by Department

Lifespan depends on gloves per day, not on headcount. The table below estimates how far a 1,000-glove case goes across common Canadian settings.

Facility type	Gloves per day	Days per case	Cases per year
Solo dental practice (15 patients)	~60	~17	~22
Two-chair dental clinic	~240	~4	~90
Family clinic (30 patients)	~90	~11	~33
Walk-in clinic	~200	5	~73
LTC home (40 beds)	~120	~8	~45
Veterinary clinic	~100	10	~36

A two-chair dental clinic will blow through a case in under a week, while a solo practice stretches one case past two weeks. Both benefit from case pricing; they just order at different frequencies.

INTCO nitrile gloves case of 10 boxes for facility stocking

Case Pricing vs Single Boxes

Retail single boxes run $13 to $16 in Canada. A nitrile gloves wholesale case purchase brings the per-box cost down to $8 to $11 — a 25 to 35 percent reduction before shipping.

Purchase route	Price per box	Price per 1,000 gloves	Savings
Retail single box	$14.50	$145	baseline
CliniEco 4mil bulk case	$10.20	$102	−30%
INTCO TouchFlex case	$9.50	$95	−34%

At 33 cases a year, a family clinic moves from roughly $4,800 at retail to about $3,200 on the CliniEco 4mil box route — a $1,600 annual difference that pays for the storage shelf many times over.

Storage, Shelf Life, and Rotation

Sealed nitrile gloves last 3 to 5 years when kept in a cool, dry area away from direct sunlight and heat registers. Keep cases sealed until needed and rotate first-in, first-out.

Products from INTCO, Top Glove, and Medline’s private labels are tested to ASTM D6319 and ISO 11193-1. Health Canada licenses medical gloves as devices and requires importers to hold an MDEL, so verify the licence on any case you receive.

Written labels on every box state the lot number and expiry — keep those visible for inspection records. Institutional buyers, including those serving Toronto General (part of UHN), treat case stock as a par-level item with lot tracking.

CliniEco 4 mil blue nitrile examination gloves, bulk clinic pack

Budgeting for Case Purchases

Quarterly budgeting is straightforward once cases per year is known. A family clinic at 33 cases per year orders roughly 8 to 9 cases per quarter, at about $95 to $102 per case, for a quarterly outlay near $800.

A dental clinic at 90 cases per year is better served by monthly orders of 7 to 8 cases, smoothing cash flow and keeping storage modest.

Whatever the cadence, order 8 to 12 weeks of burn plus one buffer case. For guidance on thickness grades, see our 4mil vs 5mil vs 6mil selection guide.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many gloves are in a case?

One case holds 1,000 gloves: 10 boxes of 100 each. INTCO and CliniEco cases both follow this standard.

How long does a case of nitrile gloves last?

Typically 2 to 6 weeks, depending on volume. A solo dental practice stretches a case past two weeks, while a two-chair clinic uses one in about four days.