Saliva: a powerful diagnostic tool for minimal intervention dentistry.

Authors: Ranganath L, Shet R, Rajesh A
Abstract
Saliva plays a vital role in oral health as patients strive to maintain a healthy dentition throughout their lives. It is natures primary defense mechanism for the oral environment, and is particularly important for protecting exposed tooth surfaces. While internal protection for dentin comes from odontoblasts and the dental pulp, the body’s external protection for enamel comes from saliva. The noninvasive nature of salivary testing has made it an effective alternative to blood and urine testing and home testing kits have made it possible for people to monitor their own health using this diagnostic medium. This paper presents what saliva can reveal about general and oral health as well as highlights the current use and potential clini…
MedWorm: Dentistry