Your mouth contains saliva, a fluid that aids digestion while also ensuring your oral environment remains healthy. Without plenty of saliva, bacteria could spread and heighten your risk of oral infections and other dental concerns. But your mouth naturally contains bacteria, sometimes dangerous pathogens.
Modern dentistry understands that analyzing the pathogens present in your saliva can reveal a great deal about your overall health. Dr. Natasha Radosavljevic, a dentist in Clearwater, FL, is proud to offer HR5 saliva testing to her dental patients.
This enhanced dental diagnostic kit can identify the five most high-risk pathogens in a patient’s saliva sample. Read on to discover details about HR5 saliva testing and how it can impact your oral health.
How Does Saliva Testing Work?
HR5 saliva testing from your dentist involves a take-home kit. You will take a small sample of your saliva, seal it with the enclosed materials, and send it to the testing center as instructed.
The lab will check the sample for evidence of the five specific pathogens that could indicate underlying health concerns, both in your mouth and elsewhere in the body. The results will be easy to read and understand, just like the instructions for collection in your kit. If you are interested in this saliva testing, give your dentist a call.
How Can Early Diagnostics Help My Oral Health?
Your dentist will evaluate your oral health during routine dental appointments. They perform visual exams of your teeth and gums as well as use x-ray imaging to identify potential issues in the interior of your smile.
However, HR5 saliva testing can reveal concerns with your oral health prior to you experiencing symptoms that you can feel or a dentist can see. With this type of testing, you can receive a diagnosis of oral health issues sooner than usual. Then you can undergo any necessary treatment to resolve the problem before it causes irreversible damage to your smile.
Plus, in many cases, early treatment of a problem means an easier process of amending the issue. For instance, saliva testing can pick up early signs of gum disease, a common but harmful infection of the gum tissue.
Some people experience irritation in the gums in the case of periodontal disease. But saliva testing can help a dentist diagnose the issue before this point. If gum disease advances, it can lead to serious damage to the gums, teeth, and jawbone. And it will be more difficult to eradicate the infection. So saliva testing can help make periodontal therapy more successful.
Pathogen detection from saliva testing can also point to other oral health issues, including jawbone degeneration or dental implant failure. Both of these dental problems can lead to serious complications in your smile.
So you will want to seek prompt dental treatment. And a quicker diagnosis will allow you to fix them sooner. Discuss the benefits of HR5 saliva testing and more preventative dental care by contacting your dentist today.