It's All About the Spit!
So is saliva screening the new “blood test”? Blood testing, performed as an aid to diagnosis, has its drawbacks: Samples are often uncomfortable to obtain, a lab visit may be necessary, and processing takes time. Finding a reasonable alternative would be beneficial, but there are several steps to such a process.
The capacity to monitor health status, disease onset and progression, and treatment outcomes through noninvasive means is a goal in health care promotion and delivery. For this to occur, three things must happen: first, specific biomarkers associated with a health or disease state must be established; second, a noninvasive manner to detect and monitor those biomarkers must be developed; and third, a mechanism to differentiate between the results is needed. Dr. Granger’s team has been studying the possibilities for several years now. Some of the key biomarkers measurable via saliva are listed in the Table below.8
Meanwhile, Dr. Tony Hashemian and colleagues at the ASDOH have developed a diagnostic tool based on pH. The purpose of their pH of Oral Health (pH2OH) initiative is to deliver new technology for pH saliva testing.9 This innovation uses a mobile phone application to capture time-sensitive data and to communicate with a server (in compliance with HIPAA regulations, of course).
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