Convenient and easy! Why your next trip to the dentist could prove a lifesaver

Soon, dentists may be able to test for diseases such as cancer, dementia, Alzheimer's, type 2 diabetes or even auto-immune diseases, a new report from the University of California Los Angeles, has revealed.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - Dr. David Wong, the report's lead author and dental expert at UCLA, said that "If we can define the boundaries of molecular targets in saliva, then we can ask what the constituents in saliva are that can mark someone who has pre-diabetes or the early stages of oral cancer or pancreatic cancer, and we can utilize this knowledge for personalized medicine."

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The saliva test looks for the particular type of molecule in human saliva, and revealed that saliva contains many of the exact same disease-revealing molecules that blood does.

"If you don't look in saliva, you may miss important indicators of disease. There seems to be treasure in saliva, which will surprise people," he said.

"This could indicate that wearable gear that informs you whether you have a disease-even before you have any symptoms-is almost here."

Dr. Wong's laboratory found that some of the RNA located in saliva is the same as that found in human cells, and similarly can be used to detect disease. This is surprising because enzymes in saliva usually degrades or destroys RNA.

The study analyzed 165 million genetic sequences, and was published in the Clinical Chemistry journal.

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