 More recent studies have focused on detection of steroid hormones and antibodies in the saliva.Recent applications emphasize the development of increasingly sophisticated techniques to detect additional proteins, genetic material, and markers of nutritional status.According to Wong, scientists are now viewing saliva as “a valuable biofluid…with the potential to extract more data than is possible currently with other diagnostic methods.”

Most saliva testing is performed using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), polymerase chain reaction (PCR), high-resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS), or any number of newer technologies such as fiber-optic-based detection.