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Researches On Saliva Drug Testing
A huge amount of research has gone into the development of saliva drug testing
methods. The methodologies used continue to evolve as a result of all this
research resulting in more accurate and reliable tests. Saliva drug testinghas
its obvious advantages but unfortunately, it is not the final solution and it
does have its drawbacks.
The major benefit of saliva drug testing is that
unlike urine blood tests, it is much easier to collect the sample for testing
and it is much more difficult to give a false sample. In urine drug testing the
sample is collected in the privacy of a special booth constructed for the
purpose or a toilet. The subject has the chance to provide a sample that is
clean without the knowledge of the person in charge of testing. This has been
the greatest issue with urine drug testing so far.
But the collection of
saliva for saliva drug testing is accomplished easily and in public leaving out
no space for the subject in question to pull a trick on the tester. The sample
required for saliva drug testing is collected by using a scrub that resembles a
toothbrush, the only difference being that at the end where there should be
bristles, we find a swab that collects saliva. Saliva is collected by placing
this collection mechanism between the lower cheek and gum for about two minutes.
Understandably, the collection method for saliva drug testing is
obviously simpler than that for urine testing, or blood testing for that matter.
Another great advantage of saliva drug testing is that, with the use of some
instant testing kits, the result is availed pretty quickly without the need for
a lab. In contrast, a blood test would require sample collection by a health
care professional and testing in a lab significantly driving up the costs and
the time required.
Saliva drug testing cannot be used as a comprehensive
drug test for detecting long term drug use patterns. Most drugs do not leave a
residue in the saliva beyond a 20 hour period. Saliva drug testing can be used
safely to judge whether the person has consumed drugs within the last 24 hours
but it won’t detect if the person has any history of drug abuse at all. A hair
drug test would beat saliva drug testing at it any given day going back up to 90
days, but a hair drug test takes a month or so to give results.
Saliva
drug testing is rather an excellent way by which to test long haul truck drivers
on the spot before a trip to determine whether he has consumed any drugs
recently that would impair his ability to drive safely. Saliva drug testing could also be employed in case of accidents on the job or on the road to
determine whether drug abuse was a factor that contributed to the mishap. With
instant results and easy sample collection, no other tests would compare with a
saliva drug test in these conditions.
Saliva drug testing has the
capability to detect up to 8 different drugs in the body. It is usually designed
to detect 5 to 6 drugs at the same time. The results of saliva drug testing are
accurate and completely reliable. So the question arises as to why saliva drug
testing is not as popular or widely employed as the urine test or the blood
test.
Saliva drug testing will eventually replace all other drug testing
methods in all cases where a comprehensive drug abuse history is not required to
be evaluated. This quick and easy method is poised to take the market by storm.
That is unless the labs manage to bury it in propaganda.
Summary
This Article is written by Lena Butler, the author of TestCountry Health Information Resources, a longer version of this article is located at Researches on Saliva Drug Testing, and resources from other home health and wellness testing articles are used such as TestCountry Health FAQ. For more information about please visit http://faq.testcountry.com
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