{"id":320,"date":"2014-06-04T21:39:53","date_gmt":"2014-06-04T21:39:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.libertyvilledentist.com\/PlottingwithPotts\/?p=320"},"modified":"2022-08-11T11:10:09","modified_gmt":"2022-08-11T16:10:09","slug":"rise-saliva-test","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/libertyvilledentist.com\/PlottingwithPotts\/2014\/06\/04\/rise-saliva-test\/","title":{"rendered":"The Rise of the Saliva Test"},"content":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s good news for people who are squeamish when it comes to getting their blood drawn: blood tests may be a thing of the past thanks to another bodily fluid\u2014saliva.<\/p>\n

In with Saliva, Out with Blood<\/h2>\n

The saliva test<\/a> could be the new frontier for diagnostic medicine. There have been recent breakthroughs in analyzing saliva for cytokines<\/a>\u2014molecules used by the body for signaling. These molecules are crucial for your immune system and their presence in saliva can be used to determine whether or not a patient is\u2014or will be\u2014afflicted by certain illnesses.\u00a0The beauty of the saliva test is its simplicity. All one has to do is swab inside of his or her mouth and it\u2019s done. No needles, no light-headedness, and no trip to the doctor\u2019s to do it. That\u2019s right: once you’ve taken a sample of your spit you then just mail it off and wait for the results.<\/p>\n

Benefits<\/h2>\n

Due to this, its simplicity and convenience on the patient-end, doctors will be able to catch illnesses earlier. Since it\u2019s cheap and can be mailed in, potentially complicating factors like socio-economics and geography are seriously reduced.\u00a0The main area in which this spit test works well is with inflammatory diseases<\/a>. It\u2019s excellent at determining<\/i> if a disease is present, but not necessarily at identifying<\/i> it. For instance:<\/p>\n