Clinical advances have allowed DNA testing to be a relatively simple, safe, and reliable procedure to prove paternity, know the relationship between individuals, or perform surrogacy tests, among other genetic medicine procedures.
Paternity testing consists of determining the genetic fingerprint or map of the members under study. By comparing the fingerprint or map of the presumed father and the child or fetus, the biological filiation of the child or fetus can be determined. To do this, it is necessary to obtain a sample of the individuals involved in the test.
A paternity testing is performed by taking a saliva sample, although it is not the saliva itself used but a sample of the buccal mucosa. This sample is taken by lightly rubbing the inside of the cheek, from inside the mouth, in the jugal mucosa area. Using this swabbing, a load of mucosal cells is obtained to allow the analysis to be carried out.
Depending on the purpose and destination of the DNA tests, the application procedure and the performance procedure are considered under two criteria: informative and legal.
The most notable differences, in this regard, for this type of clinical analysis, are as follows:
Particular or informative DNA tests.
- The name of those involved does not appear in the report.
- The interested party can perform the test at home, without the need to go to a laboratory or medical center.
- They do not have any judicial validity.
Sampling can be performed by the applicant himself at home if desired and receive the results without the need to travel. For sample collection, you can request a paternity test kit from us.
Legal DNA tests
- They are requested using an expert report and are supervised, performed, and guarded by judicial and health personnel.
- Applicants must be certified for their processing.
- Results reports include the names of those involved in the test.
Legal DNA tests are usually the ones that involve a more strict and protocol process, as a 100% reliable and error-free result is required. However, the steps to follow are the same for both. The admissibility of this paternity testing in a court of law is subject to a correct collection and identification process. Therefore, the sample collection can only be carried out by professionals from our center or from the justice system, who will identify and guard the samples to guarantee their authenticity and integrity at all times.
The best way to obtain this sample is by using special swabs that have the property of retaining many cells from the buccal mucosa. To get a good result in this test, a high quantity of cells is necessary since the process is based on the isolation of the deoxyribonucleic acid or DNA, where each individual’s genetic information is stored. In this way, we will compare the DNA of two people, which requires that the support on which the sample is going to be obtained has a high collection capacity. This aspect makes many other supports not valid to get the proper selection; for example, fingernails, hairs, bloodstains, toothbrushes, or other toiletries are not suitable to perform this test in a standard way. If blood samples are available, they are appropriate if they are whole blood to isolate nucleated cells such as leukocytes or white blood cells from the blood, as erythrocytes or red blood cells lack a nucleus and DNA. The results, which take between one week and ten days, are confidential. The reliability is 100% if the product is that he is not the father and 99.99% if he is.
