07/06/2023
What is the importance of oral health ?
Also called salivary testing or oral DNA testing, a saliva DNA test is an FDA-regulated diagnostic tool that utilizes your saliva to identify both oral and general health issues. Just like DNA from your blood or any other part of your body, the DNA from your saliva contains traceable substances called biomarkers that can reflect the overall health of your entire body, including your mouth.
Salivary DNA can reveal nearly all the information you can get from a blood test, only less invasively.
Oral DNA testing can reveal a high risk of heart attack, stroke, oral cancer, and inflammation.
A heart attack, recent research has revealed, is not caused solely by buildups of bad cholesterol deposits in the coronary arteries but by the migration and entrapment of gingivitis and other oral bacteria in these arteries.
Similarly, deposits of oral bacteria from gum infections can produce inflammation in the arteries, which can subsequently produce blood clots that then break off, migrate to the brain, and cut off its blood supply, leading to a stroke.
Among the other types of inflammation oral bacteria can cause is joint inflammation, which, in turn, can cause a chronic autoimmune dysfunction that leads to rheumatoid arthritis.[3]
Identifying these health issues and risks can empower you to seek early treatment to protect your life and health.
Benefits of Salivary DNA Testing
While you can get most, if not all, of the same information from a blood test as you can from a salivary DNA test, there are many benefits to choosing the latter over the former.
Salivary DNA tests, by comparison, are completely noninvasive. The provider merely takes a drop of saliva through a cheek swab or spit sample. This makes salivary DNA tests faster, easier and pain-free. In addition, other benefits of salivary DNA testing include that it:
• Is cheaper than blood tests
• Has a quicker turnaround time
• Allows for prompter treatment of any present conditions or risk factors
• Empowers oral health providers to develop a proper treatment plan
• Reduces risk of diseases of both the mouth and whole body
• Detects the presence of any inflammatory risk markers
• Identifies the presence of HPV strains known to increase risk of oral cancer
What’s more, for people with small veins, anemia, an aversion to needles or pain, or other concerns, a blood test may not just be undesirable; it may be prohibitive.
Suppose you believe or already know that you have a periodontal condition or an issue with the health of your mouth. In that case, a salivary DNA test can help you pinpoint the problem and identify the appropriate treatment. However, that’s not the only reason to get a salivary DNA test.
For preventative care and health maintenance, take an initial salivary DNA test to get a “baseline” of the current state of your mouth and general health. You can then take further tests annually to check up on your oral and overall health status. By comparing subsequent test results to your initial baseline results, you can see if your health improves, declines, or maintains.
Similarly, if your initial salivary DNA test, or any subsequent test, reveals any unforeseen health issues or risks, you can take immediate action to remedy the situation. Then, after completing therapy, or even while still undergoing it, you can take additional salivary DNA tests to determine the effectiveness of the treatment. If the treatment is not proving effective, your medical providers can promptly switch to a different treatment method.
Saliva testing that includes a DNA analysis can also determine if a person is predisposed to gum disease. Even if you’re not experiencing any symptoms of this condition, knowing that you’re at risk can motivate you to be extra diligent about taking good care of your teeth and gums, and you might be more likely to visit your dentist as often as is recommended.