An essential part of general wellness and well-being is oral health. Since the mouth serves as the body’s access, a malfunction of the oral cavity can have an impact on a variety of serious diseases. Dental cavities, gum disease, oral cancer, and foul breath are the most common issues with oral health.
Visiting a dentist in Powell and maintaining dental health on a regular basis is vital for preventing illnesses and ensuring general well-being. The value of dental health, its connection to severe diseases, and how a dental practice in Powell, TN, might support oral health monitoring will all be covered in this blog.
Do Saliva Tests Predict Your Oral Health Risks?
In addition to being an adaptable and accessible platform for disease detection, saliva collection, and testing can be a simple, practical, and painless sampling technique for the end user.
Limiting morbidity and mortality for a wide range of diseases, from diabetes to cancer, requires early intervention. Sensitive in vitro diagnostics (IVDs) that identify disease-specific biomarkers are essential for timely identification and effective treatment.
Compared to traditional and conventionally preferred biofluids like blood, the use of saliva sample types as a diagnostic tool offers a number of significant advantages. Let us examine the primary benefits of saliva collection as well as the overall advantages of saliva testing.
Let us examine the primary benefits of saliva collection as well as the overall advantages of saliva testing.
- Saliva’s non-invasive collection method enhances safety.
One of the most common invasive operations in healthcare is phlebotomy, or the collection of blood, which is needed for a wide variety of diagnostic testing. Despite being widely recognized as a crucial part of diagnostics, phlebotomy’s intrusive nature may expose healthcare workers to blood-borne diseases like HIV, hepatitis viruses, germs, and parasites if it is carried out improperly.
- Needles can cause a number of issues for patients.
The use of needles or the sight of blood may cause pain in patients, which can result in a range of vasovagal reactions (including fainting) among 0.9 to 3.4% of patients. Occasionally, bruising and pain have been reported by 14 to 45% of patients. Lastly, germs may enter the bloodstream directly if venipuncture is performed without proper sterilization.
- Self-administration of saliva is simpler when a healthcare professional is present.
Both phlebotomy and nasopharyngeal swabbing require the use of personal protective equipment (PPE) to reduce pathogen exposure, a designated site and timing for sample collection, a certified healthcare practitioner taking the samples, and basic training for staff on how to carry out collection properly.
- Better Transportability and Stability
As previously mentioned, decentralized self-collection is made practical by the use of saliva as a sample type, even in places without access to a healthcare system. A decentralized test system has many advantages, provided that samples can be transported from a patient’s home to a testing facility. Several studies have shown that SARS-CoV-2 RNA remains stable in saliva across a variety of storage environments, and numerous emergency-authorized tests have adopted at-home kits that utilize saliva collection techniques.
Using blood would make this much more challenging to do. Excessive handling and blood sample transportation might cause red blood cell lysis, which may alter test results. The results of diagnostic tests can also be changed by temperature variations, prolonged transit times, and general transport quality.
- Compared to nasopharyngeal or blood samples, saliva sampling is a more affordable option.
Saliva sampling is less expensive than blood sampling, according to several studies. Additionally, the cost of obtaining and purifying specific salivary indicators is lower: Commercial salivary DNA extraction costs $6.93 for each sample, whereas blood DNA extraction costs $10.88 per sample.
Wrapping up!
For general health and well-being, dental health is crucial. Numerous serious diseases, including cancer, diabetes, asthma, and cardiovascular disease, can be brought on by bad dental hygiene. Regular dental visits, brushing and flossing, and a balanced diet are all essential for sustaining good oral health.
