Point-of-care platforms for salivary diagnostics

Saliva reflects the physiologic state of the body, including emotional, endocrinal, nutritional and metabolic variations, and so can be used to monitor both oral and systemic health. In the past decade, salivary diagnostic approaches have been developed to monitor oral and systemic diseases. Along with these exciting scientific advancements, there is an emerging need to move salivary diagnostics out of the lab and into clinical practice. Point-of-care (POC) technologies specifically developed for salivary diagnostics can provide rapid, simple, low-cost and accurate measurements directly from saliva. To further transform salivary diagnostics into clinical reality, an integrated platform-based POC application is necessary, which includes sample processing, detection, a user-friendly interface and medical information technology. This review presents the requirements for POC platforms in salivary diagnostics and describes current applications of POC platforms for monitoring medical conditions using saliva. By advancing POC platforms for salivary diagnostics, dentists are anticipated to engage in chairside screening of medical conditions.