Saliva testing

Saliva is extremely important for dental health. It contains important ingredients that help to neutralise any acids in the oral environment, as acids are the most lethal substance to teeth, causing the enamel of the teeth to dissolve and breakdown.

Acids can enter the oral environment in a number of ways, most commonly through the foods and drinks we consume, examples include, fizzy drinks (including sparkling water), citrus fruits (e.g. oranges, lemons and grapefruit) and drinks (i.e. fruit juices), acidic apples, vinegar, pickled onions, white wine etc etc etc.

In addition to this, the bacteria that live in our mouths converts any sugar in our diet to acid causing tooth decay, commonly between our teeth where we forget to brush and floss and on the fissures of the teeth that are difficult to clean.

Certain medical conditions such as acid reflux or heart burn can cause acid regurgitation, as acid from the stomach enters the mouth and contacts the teeth.

With all of these possible routes of acid attack to our teeth, you may wonder why we have any teeth left at all! The reason why our teeth are generally protected is that our saliva is designed to neutralise the acids in our mouth and therefore help to keep our teeth healthy.

In some cases this 'buffering ability of our saliva may be compromised and in these circumstances the teeth can be at risk as natures normal mechanisms for protecting our teeth have failed. Identifying this early and recommending ways to overcome this deficiency can be an important part of the battle in protecting your teeth from further damage.

The Victoria Jones Dental Studio Combined Saliva Test is designed to test five main aspects of your Saliva

Test 1 - Level of Hydration - i.e. how quickly do your salivary glands produce saliva? A reduced rate can indicate that saliva is not produced quickly enough when needed, leaving your teeth vulnerable when under attack.

Test 2 - Saliva Consistency - This can be affected by certain medical conditions and the consistency can effect the spread of saliva around your mouth and hence influence it's ability to protect your teeth.

Test 3 - pH Measurement - This measures how acidic your saliva is at the time it is tested. It is therefore important not to eat or drink anything apart from water one hour prior to your test if this test is to give us a meaningful result.

Test 4 - Saliva Quantity - This measures how much saliva is produced during chewing over a period of 5 minutes. This will help us to determine if you produce enough saliva when you are eating in order to help neutralise the acids in your diet.

Test 5 - Buffering Capacity - This test measures how well your saliva is able to neutralise any acids that are in your saliva.

Each Saliva Test including interpretation of the results costs £31.50

Following the collection of your test results, if anything is found to be unusual we can advise you on how best to protect your teeth based on the areas that we have found to be deficient. In some instances some preventive treatments may be indicated following testing. For example, if we find that your saliva is particularly acidic or if your buffering capacity is low, we may recommend a remineralisation treatment to try and help repair the enamel that may have been damaged due to prolonged acidic exposure. To read more about our remineralisation treatments please click here.

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