The future of saliva as an analytical sample

Abstract

Saliva has gained attention in research mainly because of the noninvasive way in which the samples are obtained, allowing repeated sampling even in very susceptible populations such as children. Moreover, increasing scientific evidence confirms and highlights the potential of saliva as an analytical sample in application to both local and systemic diseases. Several aspects of saliva have been studied in the search of biomarkers for a broad range of disease conditions. Likewise, different techniques have been used, from simple evaluation of salivary flow and colorimetry to more complex omics approaches. However, saliva is still little used in clinical settings, and the main reasons for this are reviewed in this chapter.