Saliva as a diagnostic tool: a review

Abstract

Saliva has been described as the mirror of the body. In a world of soaring healthcare costs and an environment where rapid diagnosis may be critical to a positive patient outcome, saliva is emerging as a viable alternative to blood sampling. As a diagnostic fluid, saliva offers distinctive advantages over serum because it can be collected non-invasively by individuals with modest training.Furthermore; saliva may provide a cost-effective approach for the screening of large populations. In the field of periodontology, traditional clinical criteria are often insufficient for determining sites of active disease, for monitoring the response to therapy, or for measuring the degree of susceptibility to future disease progression. Saliva, as a mirror of oral and systemic health, is a valuable source for clinically relevant information because it contains biomarkers specific for the unique physiologic aspects of periodontal diseases as well as systemic diseases. This review highlights the various potentials of saliva as a diagnostic biomarker for oral and systemic diseases.