Saliva as an alternative diagnostic tool-A review

Saliva is a major determinant of the oral environment and serves as an easily available diagnostic tool of systemic conditions. Saliva is a clinically informative, biologic fluid that contains multiple biomarkers which makes salivary diagnostics a dynamic field that is being incorporated as part of disease diagnosis and clinical monitoring, and for making important clinical decisions for patient care. The purpose of this review article is to give an overview of the basic physiology of saliva and to examine the diagnostic application of saliva for systemic and oral diseases.