# Test or Skip
> Home kits and lab tests promise a bacterial profile. Learn what they measure, what they cannot tell you and how dentists use the information.

## Guides
- [How Microbiome Tests Work](https://oral-microbiome-testing.pages.dev/how-microbiome-tests-work/): How microbiome tests work comes down to three steps: you collect a sample, a lab reads the genetic material in it, and software matches that material to known.
- [The Limits of Test Results](https://oral-microbiome-testing.pages.dev/limits-of-test-results/): The limits of test results are easy to overlook because a colorful report looks authoritative.
- [Clinical vs Consumer Tests](https://oral-microbiome-testing.pages.dev/clinical-vs-consumer-tests/): Clinical vs consumer tests differ mainly in who orders them, why, and what happens afterward.
- [Interpreting Results With a Dentist](https://oral-microbiome-testing.pages.dev/interpreting-results-with-dentist/): Interpreting results with dentist input means treating the report as one piece of background, not a verdict.
- [Privacy of Your Sample Data](https://oral-microbiome-testing.pages.dev/privacy-of-genetic-data/): Privacy of genetic data matters with microbiome tests because a saliva or swab sample can contain human DNA as well as microbial DNA.

## About
- [About Test or Skip](https://oral-microbiome-testing.pages.dev/about/): not medical advice, how the site is funded and how guides are made

## Optional
- [RSS feed](https://oral-microbiome-testing.pages.dev/feed.xml)