Saliva: a diagnostic tool for various oral and systemic diseases

ABSTRACT

In recent years salvia has been recognized as an alternate source of body fluid for diagnostic -purposes being safe, conveniently collected, cost effective and its importance in clinical practice, particularly in dentistry has been significant. It is recommended that saliva should be tested for almost all medically important immunoassay and chemistry analytes, including long term therapeutic drug monitoring, disease state testing, wellness-health screening and all rapid diagnostic testing where a non-invasive specimen collection and/or rapid analytic result is desired. Its status for diagnostic and epidemiological testing for various oral and systemic diseases, and the techniques utilized for this purpose, are discussed and reviewed