Minimally Invasive Techniques for Remineralization
Salivary diagnostics have been used to diagnose and monitor systemic disease since the late 1980s when highly sensitive tests were developed to detect hormones and drugs and monitor microbial infections. By the early 2000s, research was initiated to develop a comprehensive catalog of all salivary secretory proteins titled, “Human Salivary Proteome Project.” Most recently, saliva has been examined as a biofluid to identify the presence of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. Diagnosing systemic disease is challenging and an invasive approach is often needed. However, salivary diagnostics is a minimally invasive approach to diagnosing and managing oral and systemic disease.
Saliva contains biomarkers, or biological substances that can be quantified and analyzed to indicate health and predict or detect disease.
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Which of the following is part of saliva’s composition?
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Gingival crevicular fluid is a biological mucosal exudate located within the gingival tissues and is an indicator of periodontal health.
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Saliva is a promising and accurate predictor of early disease, improved diagnoses, and monitor of health.
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Matrix metalloproteinase-8 is a predominant proteinase associated with periodontal diseases, leading to destroyed interstitial collagen.
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While saliva has been examined as a medium to detect many types of cancer, it demonstrates the greatest potential to detect oral cancer because saliva is in direct contact with the cancerous lesion, and it sheds detectable cancerous cells.
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Low salivary flow rate is a strong indicator for decreased caries risk.
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Salivary diagnostics cannot be used to detect COVID-19 through the virus’ RNA biomarkers.
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Advancements in point-of-care technology allow early detection, diagnosis, and prognosis of oral and systemic diseases and cancer in a noninvasive manner with real-time results.
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Minimally Invasive Techniques for Remineralization
Not bad, but there’s room to grow when it comes to understanding salivary diagnostics for disease detection. Consider reading more about this important facet of dental hygiene care. Good luck!
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This information is from the article The Role of Oral-Fluid Biomarkers in Diagnosing Oral Diseases by Nancy Kyser, RDH, BSDH; Denise Guadiana, RDH, MSDH; and Janet Kinney, RDH, MS. To read the article, click here.
