There’s a variety of methods you can use to pass a saliva THC drug test. Wondering what THC is? To put it simply, tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) is the psychoactive component of weed that allows people to get high. And that’s exactly what oral drug tests look for in your saliva.
Now let’s get to passing these drug tests. For starters, you can introduce certain lifestyle changes aimed at improving the natural detoxification of your body. You can also use various home remedies like chewing gums or sour candies that temporarily remove or mask drug metabolites in your mouth and saliva. There are also special detox products, such as a detox mouthwash, specifically designed to rapidly cleanse your saliva from THC and other toxins.
As you can see, there’s a variety of methods to choose from, and making an informed choice can be extremely difficult due to the overwhelming amount of information available on the Internet. So we decided to help you with this daunting task and conducted relevant research. In this article, we will explain what a saliva THC drug test is and how it works as well as discuss the multitude of methods that can be used to pass such tests in detail.
What Is a Saliva THC Drug Test?
A saliva THC drug test, also commonly known as a mouth swab drug test or oral drug test, is one of the most popular ways to check a person for recent weed consumption. These tests are specially designed to detect THC in your saliva. The period of time for which a test can detect THC in your saliva, which is called a detection window, depends on a variety of personal factors like body mass index (BMI) and metabolism, as well as consumption habits. In general, THC can stay in saliva for 1-3 days for occasional users and up to 7 days for regular and heavy ones.
How Does a Saliva THC Drug Test Work?
This type of drug test focuses specifically on detecting THC metabolites in your saliva. However, mouth swab drug tests can detect other substances like opioids and alcohol as well. That’s why you’re potentially at risk if you consume any illegal substance, not only weed. Now let’s take a look at how saliva drug tests are commonly performed:
- A lab assistant will tell you to avoid drinking, eating or smoking for at least 10-15 minutes before the test.
- A technician will use a special stick with a sponge or absorbent pad to collect saliva from your mouth by swabbing it under your tongue or inside of the cheek.
- The collected sample will either be tested right on the spot or sealed within a container and sent to a lab for further analysis.
In the case of on-site testing, the results are usually available within just a few minutes. On the other hand, a detailed lab analysis usually takes from 1 to 3 days. It’s also necessary to mention that saliva THC drug tests are highly accurate and can be hard to cheat due to the fact that the collection of saliva samples is closely observed by specialists.
When Do You Need to Pass a Saliva THC Drug Test?
You may need to pass a mouth swab drug test for weed in a variety of situations, including work-related, personal, and legal matters. Let’s take a closer look at the most common ones:
- Pre-employment testing. Potential candidates for certain job positions are often required to pass a saliva THC drug test before they actually get hired. This is done to avoid any problems related to the compliance with corporate anti-drug policies, as well as due to the belief that weed users tend to be inattentive and unreliable.
- Workplace testing. Workplace saliva THC drug tests can take two forms: scheduled and surprise ones. Their main goal is determining whether employees use weed and ensuring that they comply with internal anti-drug policies and government regulations. These tests are especially widely used in such industries as transportation, construction, healthcare, and law enforcement.
- Return-to-duty testing. Suspended employees are usually subjected to saliva THC drug tests before they are allowed to return to their professional duties. Passing this test is usually the last chance to retain a job.
- Post-accident testing. This type of saliva drug testing commonly takes place after workplace and roadside accidents. Its main goal is to determine whether the involved individuals acted under the influence of weed. The results of this testing usually produce a significant impact on the determination of guilt.
- Probation. Individuals on probation are legally obliged to pass both scheduled and surprise drug tests to ensure their compliance with probation terms.
- Child custody. Fairly determining the right of parents to child custody can be a challenging process. That’s why the court may require parents to pass a saliva drug test for weed and make the final decision based on its results. It’s necessary to note that parents who consume weed are generally viewed as incapable of taking proper care of their children.
As you can guess, failing a saliva THC drug test in any of these situations will inevitably lead to negative consequences. They may vary based on a specific situation, ranging from suspension and fines to unemployment and even imprisonment.
What Methods Can Be Used to Pass a Saliva THC Drug Test?
There’s a wide variety of methods that people use to pass an oral drug test and share on the Internet. Some of them mask metabolites in your saliva, others cleanse your mouth from THC or even provide full THC detox. That’s why it can be tricky to get anything useful from such an abundance of information. In order to make things easier for you, we’ve performed thorough research and sorted the most popular methods into 3 distinctive categories: lifestyle changes, home remedies, and detox products. Let’s take a closer look at each of them.
What Lifestyle Changes Can Assist You in Passing a Saliva THC Drug Test?
There are several lifestyle changes you can implement to increase your chances of successfully passing a saliva drug test. However, their effectiveness and reliability can vary significantly. So let’s discuss them in detail:
- Increasing the consumption of high-fat foods. It’s necessary to start with mentioning that according to the research “Mechanisms of Action and Pharmacokinetics of Cannabis”, THC is fat-soluble, which means that it attaches to fat molecules in your body. So why don’t you try to introduce some dietary changes to increase your chances of passing a saliva drug test? In particular, eating high-fat foods like pizza, burgers, peanut butter, and cheese on the day of your scheduled test and shortly before it is a really good idea because it can help you move some THC metabolites from your saliva to the stomach. However, this method has limited effectiveness and is unlikely to work for regular or heavy users.
- Using various means to promote saliva production. As you may already know, it’s possible to hide the presence of THC in saliva by diluting it. That’s why you should drink a lot of water on the day of your test and avoid any dehydrating drinks like coffee or strong tea. It’s also a good idea to use chewing gum and various candies. While doing so will allow you to greatly dilute your saliva, the effectiveness of this method is limited, especially for regular weed users.
- Maintaining good oral hygiene. Guess what, this may prove helpful not only in avoiding an emergency visit to the dentist, but also in passing a saliva THC drug test! Thoroughly brushing your teeth, tongue, and gums every day and especially on the day of your test can help you remove THC metabolites from your saliva. However, this method is likely to be useful only for occasional users, and it certainly won’t help regular and chronic ones.
What Home Remedies Can Help You Pass a Saliva THC Drug Test?
There is also a wide variety of home remedies that many people use to pass their oral drug tests. These range from easy and harmless to pretty risky and time-consuming ones, so they may prove more or less fitting in specific circumstances. Let’s briefly discuss the most popular ones:
- Listerine rinse. Involves repeatedly rising your mouth with Listerine antibacterial mouthwash over the course of several days. This method has relatively low effectiveness and won’t work for regular or heavy users.
- Hydrogen peroxide rinse. You need to rinse your mouth with a diluted peroxide mouthwash just before your test. While this method is fairly effective, it poses a significant threat to your health.
- Apple cider vinegar rinse. This method is pretty similar to using Listerine, but using apple cider vinegar. Has even lower effectiveness, so we can’t recommend it to anyone.
- Lemon juice rinse. It’s much like other rinses, but has a somewhat different mechanism of action. However, it has pretty low effectiveness, so it’s better to avoid using it.
- Mint gum. Chewing a mint gum allows you to dilute your saliva and temporarily make THC undetectable. Unfortunately, this method doesn’t work for regular or heavy weed users.
- Sour candies. Have a mechanism of action that’s mostly similar to mint gum. Another similarity is that this method may work only for occasional users as well.
- Long-term abstinence. Involves stopping the use of weed for a long period of time and relies on the natural detox of your body. This method is quite effective, but it requires a lot of time to produce the desired effects, so it won’t work if you have limited time before your saliva THC drug test or have to pass a surprise test.
What Detox Products Can Help You Pass a Saliva THC Drug Test?
Currently, there are a lot of different detox products that are believed to be useful for passing oral drug tests available on the market. But are all of them equally effective and reliable? Of course not! Since it can be rather difficult to determine the best detox products to pass a saliva THC drug test, we decided to help you with this and conducted thorough research. As a result, we were able to choose the products you can truly rely on. Let’s take a closer look at the best ones:
- Toxin Rid Rescue Wash Mouthwash. This product is often considered the best mouthwash to pass a saliva THC drug test due to its numerous advantages. In particular, it’s fast-acting (starts working within just 10-15 minutes and temporarily eliminates THC and other toxins from your saliva), effective (works even for regular and heavy users and provides a 1-hour toxin-free window), easy-to-use (has very simple instructions) and safe (fully composed of natural ingredients like aloe vera and witch hazel). Toxin Rid Rescue Wash is produced by TestClear, a highly reputable brand in the detox industry, has a competitive price ($29.95), and comes with a money-back guarantee. It can also boast great customer reviews, which once again prove its high effectiveness and reliability.
- Stinger Detox Mouthwash. Another great choice to temporarily detoxify your mouth and saliva and successfully pass an oral drug test for weed. This product shares many advantages with Toxin Rid Rescue wash, including rapid action (starts working within 15 minutes after use), effectiveness (also offers a 60-minute toxin-free window, but is less effective for heavy users), ease of use, and safety (consists only of natural ingredients as well). This mouthwash is produced by Stinger Detox, another respectable company in the detox industry, costs $34.95 and has a money-back guarantee. Its customer reviews are mostly positive, which means that users tend to be satisfied with the quality of the product.
- Clear Choice Oral Clear Gum. This product is a special toxin-neutralizing gum that works. Unlike detox mouthwashes, it masks metabolites for a brief period of time to provide you with the ability to pass a mouth swab drug test for weed. Clear Choice Oral Clear Gum is extremely fast-acting (starts working within merely 30 seconds), pretty effective (works for all types of users and its effects last 30 minutes), and easy-to-use (just remember not to swallow the gum). As you can guess ,this product is produced by Clear Choice, yet another well-known brand. However, it’s quite expensive (costs between $100 and $140) and has somewhat mixed customer reviews. Nevertheless, Clear Choice Oral Clear Gum is a solid option for people who have a high risk of facing a surprise saliva THC drug test.
What Other Substances Can a Saliva THC Drug Test Detect?
As we already mentioned, a saliva drug test can detect not only THC, but other substances as well. This is especially topical to advanced oral tests that are performed in specialized labs. Such tests can also determine the concentration of drug metabolites in your saliva and the approximate time of drug use. The list of substances that can be detected by a saliva drug test includes (please note that this list isn’t exhaustive):
- THC
- Opiates
- Methamphetamine
- Amphetamines
- Ecstasy (MDMA)
- Barbiturates
- Benzodiazepines
- PCP
- Alcohol
How Long Do Different Substances Stay in Your Saliva?
If you use any substances apart from weed, now you must be quite concerned about the ability of oral drug tests to detect them. That’s why it’s important to know for how long these substances can actually stay in your saliva in order to plan your actions and make informed decisions. Let’s take a look at the detection times for various drugs:
Substance | Detection Window |
THC (weed) | 1-3 days |
Opiates | 1-2 days |
Cocaine | 1-2 days |
Methamphetamine | 1-3 days |
Amphetamines | 1-3 days |
MDMA (ecstasy) | 1-2 days |
Barbiturates | 1-3 days |
Benzodiazepines | 1-3 days |
PCP | 1-3 days |
Alcohol | 6-24 hours |
How Does a Saliva Drug Test Compare to Other Test Types?
As you can guess, different types of drug tests have certain advantages and drawbacks, which makes them more or less applicable in specific situations. For example, a saliva test is fast, accurate and extremely difficult to tamper with, but it has a relatively short detection window. These qualities make it useful mainly for detecting recent drug use and on-site testing. Now let’s compare the key characteristics of all mainstream types of drug tests:
Aspect | Saliva Test | Urine Test | Hair Test | Blood Test |
Detection window | 1-3 days | Up to 30 days | 90+ days | Up to 2 days |
Accuracy | 97-98% | 99+% | Very high | Very high |
Ease of use | Very easy | Easy | Easy | Hard |
Invasiveness | Non-invasive | Somewhat invasive | Non-invasive | Invasive |
Tampering risk | Low | Moderate | Very low | Low |
Cost | Moderate | Low-moderate | High | High |
What Are the Key Points to Remember About Passing a Saliva THC Drug Test?
There are several important things you should always remember about passing an oral drug test for weed. Firstly, it can detect THC in your saliva for up to 3 days, unless you’re a regular or heavy user (up to 7 days in this case). Secondly, the whole testing process is closely observed by lab specialists, so tampering with the sample isn’t an option. And here we come to the most important part: actually passing a saliva THC drug test.
In order to do this, you can use one of the methods mentioned in this article. We recommend you to rely on detox mouthwashes like Toxin Rid Rescue Wash or Stinger Detox because they can rapidly cleanse your saliva of THC metabolites for enough time to successfully pass your test and work even for regular weed users.
Surely, you can choose other methods, such as home remedies or lifestyle changes, but they aren’t nearly as effective as a dedicated mouth wash, especially for surprise testing. However, the final choice is up to you, and you can make a truly informed one now that you’ve read this article.