What Is a Saliva Test?
A salivary diagnostic, or saliva test, makes detecting many systemic diseases possible via your saliva. By testing your saliva, our team at Gentle Dentistry in Tampa, Florida, can check if the pathogens in your mouth are creating a health risk for the rest of your body.
In your mouth alone, there are over 700 known types of bacteria linked to not only cavities, periodontal disease, and bad breath but also to more serious health concerns, including heart attack, stroke, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and more.
Is Your Mouth Presenting a Health Risk to The Rest of Your Body?
While hundreds of bacteria live and thrive in your mouth, five particular high-risk pathogens impact not only your oral health but your whole-body health. What is even more scary is that these same bacteria strains are shown to contribute to up to 50 percent of heart attacks. To find out if your mouth is putting the rest of your body at risk, our team can perform salivary testing to see if these dangerous bacteria currently reside in your mouth.
Salivary Testing
The good news is that a salivary test is one of the simplest tests you will ever take. It is completely painless yet will provide invaluable information about your oral health and well-being. We simply take a sample of your saliva by having you spit it into a tube, which we collect and send to a laboratory. It is then analyzed to identify any harmful bacterial pathogens in your mouth. This testing takes about a week, and your results will be emailed to you. Your results will include a breakdown of the sample you provided and recommended treatment options uniquely tailored to your mouth and the bacteria within.
Schedule An Appointment Today!
With salivary testing, we can detect existing infections at stages so early they may not even be recognizable via a visual exam. The information provided to you and our team will allow us to develop a personalized treatment plan to reduce or eliminate these harmful pathogens so that any risk to your oral and overall health can be minimized.
To schedule an appointment with our team, please call us today at (813) 734-7102.
