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Oral fluid testing FAQs

Drug abuse in the workplace puts employers at a risk of increased accidents, more absenteeism, lower productivity and higher insurance costs. Oral fluid testing, like all drug testing methodologies, helps to mitigate these risks by screening out applicants and employees who use drugs. 

Drugs take time to metabolize and pass through the system in a urine test, and the same drugs are incorporated as hair grows and it takes time for the drug to be present in the hair above the scalp. But an oral fluid test will often detect drugs in a donor’s system immediately after use. This makes oral fluid testing ideal for a broad range of testing situations ranging from pre-employment, to reasonable suspicion, to post-accident testing where the employer is interested in assessing what’s in the donors system at the time of collection.

Oral fluid testing offers confidential lab-based drug test results from a minimally-invasive, observed collection. It is excellent at detecting recent drug use because it can screen for drugs in a donor’s system soon after use. By using oral fluid instead of urine, donors can collect and cap their own oral fluid samples on-site and in the presence of a monitor, reducing the likelihood of tampering or a donor challenge later in the drug testing process. Oral fluid can be used for employment, random, reasonable suspicion, return-to-duty and post-accident drug testing.

Our laboratory tests a variety of drugs in oral fluid including amphetamine, methamphetamines (including MDMA and its metabolite), cocaine (metabolite), marijuana (THC), opiates (codeine, morphine, hydrocodone, hydromorphone, 6-AM (heroin), oxycodones (oxycodone, and oxymorphone), and phencyclidine (PCP).

While every drug and donor is different, oral fluid is widely regarded as the most reliable specimen type for detecting recent use. Oral fluid is able to detect most drugs starting soon after ingestion and extending out for 24-48 hours after use. 

Read more FAQs or download our Quantisal™ brochure

View the Quantisal™ collection instructions.