It's All About the Spit!

Remember eighth grade, when you were taught the correlation between pH and saliva? You learned that testing saliva provides information on whether the mouth is an acidic, basic, or neutral environment. But did you ever suspect then that saliva would become a formidable instrument for medical diagnosis, health, and research?

It’s true, friends and colleagues: Spit is the latest, greatest trend in health care! This important physiologic fluid, which contains a highly complex assortment of substances, is rapidly gaining notice as a diagnostic tool. Don’t believe it? Read on!

The oral cavity, according to Dr. Jack Dillenberg, the inaugural dean of the Arizona School of Dentistry and Oral Health (ASDOH), “is the gateway and window into health in our body. The signs of nutritional deficiencies, general infections, and systemic diseases that affect the entire body may first become apparent in the oral cavity via lesions or other oral problems. Saliva plays a significant role in maintaining oral health and has a strong correlation to tooth decay.”¹

Yes, we’ve known for a while that an adequate amount of saliva serves as a pH buffer; when plaque pH drops below 5.5, dental caries can occur. But according to researchers at The Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Interdisciplinary Salivary Bioscience Research (yes, a research center dedicated to spit!), saliva holds a wealth of data that is easily collected and economically analyzed and may be a key to many mysteries of human biology and genetics, as well as a helpful tool to combat disease. “There’s lots of potential in exploring what’s in saliva,” according to Dr. Doug Granger, the center’s director and a psychoneuroendo­crinologist (what a mouthful—pun intended!) at Arizona State University.²

Saliva in the mouth forms a thin film that protects against dental caries, erosion, attrition, abrasion, periodontal diseases, candidiasis, and abrasive mucosal lesions. Studies suggest saliva may be useful in detecting heart disease, acid reflux, and diabetes; it is already being used for rapid HIV testing.^3-5 Researchers have also reported encouraging results in the use of saliva for the diagnosis of autoimmune disorders, breast cancer, oral cancers, gum disease, and cardiovascular, endocrine, and infectious diseases.^6,7

Is saliva screening the new "blood test"?