Saliva is an increasingly important diagnostic sample that can provide valuable information about an individual’s health and disease status. Traditional methods of collecting saliva such asspitting or drooling into a container can be difficult, messy and lead to sample contamination. Thankfully, new saliva collection devices are making it easier than ever to collect clean, high-quality saliva samples in a non-invasive manner.

Conventional Saliva Collection Methods
For decades, the main methods for collecting saliva involved having a patient spit or drool directly into a collection tube or onto a swab or pad. While simple, these traditional methods have several drawbacks. It can be difficult for some individuals to produce an adequate saliva volume for testing. Samples also run the risk of dilution from moisture in the mouth or contamination from food debris dislodged during the collection process. Maintaining sterile techniques is challenging without specialized collection tools. Overall, conventional drool or spit methods often yield samples of inconsistent quality that are not optimal for downstream diagnostic applications.

The Introduction of Saliva Collection Devices
In recent years, portable, easy-to-use Saliva Collection Devices have entered the to address the limitations of older collection approaches. These new tools aim to provide reproducible, contamination-free means of obtaining pure saliva for analysis. Some of the leading saliva collection devices available include:

- SalivaBio Oral Swab: This swab-based collector contains a small sponge at the end of a plastic stick. The patient swabs the inside of their cheeks and under their tongue to absorb saliva. The sponge is then placed in a collection tube for storage.

- Salimetrics Children’s Swab: Similar to the Oral Swab but designed especially for collecting saliva from young children ages 3–12 who may have difficulty spitting or drooling on command. Features a child-friendly swab design.

- ISOhelix Buccal Swab: Another swab-based option containing a small brush tip to gently scrape the inner cheeks and collect cellular material in addition to saliva. Ideal for DNA or RNA analysis applications.

- SalivaBio Saliva Collection Aid: This device features a small, sterile straw that patients place under their tongue to passively fill with saliva during the collection period. Minimizes effort required compared to spitting or drooling methods.

- Oasis Diagnostics Saliva Sampler: Contains an absorbent pad on a breakaway tip that is placed in the mouth to soak up saliva. Then placed in a tube and the tip snaps off, sealing in the sample.