AbstractABSTRACT
Traditionally, bite-mark analysis has been a vital element in forensic odontology. Salivary analysis is a novel addition to this field. Recovery, detection and analysis of saliva could be crucial in a crime investigation. Hence saliva can act as a significant source of forensic evidence such as drugs, toxins, heavy metals, hormones, sex determinants, DNA and other nucleic acids, blood group antigens and oral microbiota data which can be crucial in identifying the suspect or victim. Additionally, saliva has also depicted some significant benefits over the other biological fluids such as blood. To emphasize on this aspect, the non-invasive nature for collection of saliva and the ease with which it can be collected makes it an edge over blood as a biological sample. Saliva is also comparatively safer to collect especially from some forms of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome and hepatitis. This review summarizes the use of saliva and its implications in forensic as an evidence.