Patient Education

About Saliva Testing

Saliva testing has many advantages over blood testing. Saliva specimen collection does not require a blood draw and there are no risks to patients. Saliva collections are convenient and can be done at work or at home. When stored properly, saliva samples are stable for several weeks.

With an accuracy of 92-96%, saliva testing is more accurate than blood testing. The ability to collect more than one specimen is another advantage of saliva testing because this can give providers more information than a single collection. Compared to blood testing, saliva testing is also more affordable.

The method of testing saliva that Diagnos-Techs, Inc. uses is called ELISA testing. For more in-depth information about this kind of testing please see Why Saliva?/Saliva Testing at a Glance .

There are several different ways of measuring the hormones in a person’s body. Most blood and serum tests look only at the level of hormones that are present in a person’s tissues. This is known as “bound hormone levels”.

Saliva testing looks at the “unbound hormone levels” also known as “free fraction hormone levels” which are the hormone levels that are available to be used by the body’s tissues. This gives providers a better idea of the levels of hormones that are actually influencing the tissues, rather than just the level of hormones that are present in the tissues.

Measuring free fraction hormone levels gives a provider more information than measuring bound hormone levels. Usually, when bound hormone levels are measured, a provider needs to guess at the level of hormones affecting the tissues. This is not the case when measuring free fraction hormone levels.

The accuracy of saliva testing, together with its affordability, convenience, and the ability to collect multiple specimens makes saliva testing superior to blood testing.