FAQ: Oral Drug Testing

Drug testing is the process of analyzing specific samples or specimens from a person, to trace the presence of specific drugs or metabolic by-products of the drug. These samples to be tested include urine, oral fluids, hair, blood, semen, etc.

Oral drug testing

Like Urine Drug Testing, the oral fluid drug testing methodology employs the collection of a specimen, which is Saliva in this case. The rapid drug screen methods can also be for saliva drug testing in several different ways. Oral drug testing provides a slight disadvantage to the industry standard urine drug testing. Urine drug testing has the ability to detect the presence of drugs for prior usage a little better than saliva testing. Another technical disadvantage of oral drug testing is the analysts may face the problem of air bubbles inside the specimen that can induce inaccuracies in the test results. This needs to be closely monitored.

Benefits of oral drug testing

Oral drug tests and screening has some significant benefits over other specimen types, while performing drug screenings.

-          Rapid drug screen kits are also available to do the saliva drug testing.

-          There are devices available in the market, which are portable, easy to handle, convenient and provide the results fast.

-          As compared to urine drug testing, it is very convenient to collect saliva samples and hence do not invade privacy, during the time of specimen collection.

-          The specimen collection can be done in clear view, so the chance of adulteration and tampering is very rare or significantly reduced.

-          Due to the above reason, the sample collection costs are minimal and there is no need to transport the sample to distant laboratories, as the testing can be done at any location, with rapid drug screening.

-          The oral drug testing kits can also handle multiple drug types at the same time, like any other drug testing methodology.

-          The oral drug testing devices can also test the group of drugs as specified by the federal agency National Institute for Drugs Abuse (NIDA), thereby abiding to the federal regulation for drug testing.

Scope of oral drug testing

Oral drug testing can be carried out by laboratories in the same way as the popular urine drug testing method. However, people prefer using saliva as the specimen of choice. As of today after the availability of rapid drug screening at the market is more and more prevalent, schools, businesses, drug courts and  sometimes parents are adopting this testing, as it reduces time and effort, while giving a non-invasive method of sample collection. Moreover, due to the availability of rapid drug screening for saliva, they can do the test at their own location, with less effort and time wasted for drug testing. They either employ a random drug test or periodi drug tests for their subjects, using this technique. Also, many advanced kits have been launched into the market that takes care of the air bubble problem for the saliva samples collected. So, except for the disadvantage for past drug detection period, this method is always preferred and gaining popularity across the society with increased field testing being carried out in courts, military facilities, jails, hospitals as well as business.