Rapid Point-of-Care Salivary Diagnostic for Periodontal Health

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The dental profession has searched for many years for additional real time chair-side measures to provide objective measures to aid in the monitoring of periodontal health and early diagnosis of disease. Research efforts have produced solid evidence that constituents present in saliva can provide important complimentary diagnostic information, and have the potential for point-of-care (POC) device use by dental/healthcare professionals and the general public. Of the many biomarkers demonstrated in saliva, accumulated evidence shows that matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-8 has high sensitivity and specificity for discriminating periodontal disease from health and is present at a high concentration in saliva. Yet, rapid, chairside, biochemical tests that utilize this informatio for risk assessment of periodontal disease are not yet available in the U.S. We are developing a hand held (1.5 x 3 inch) POC device that detects MMP-8 in saliva. This device, designated Quik-'PD