(+1) 647 931 2711You will very rarely have any issues with your paternity test result so put your mind at rest that you will unlikely meet any of the following issues; however, they do sometimes happen and you may consequently wish to know about them.
Sometimes your samples may prove not suitable for laboratory analysis- this is especially true for some samples such as licked envelopes, a drinking glass or a razor blade. If you have used oral mouth swabs provided in a home paternity test kit to collect saliva and cheek cells it is unlikely that you can go wrong. However, if you do any of the following you may render your samples useless for lab analysis:
• You ate or drank anything just before swabbing. You must leave at least an hour between taking your samples and having eaten or drank anything. If you don’t do this you risk contaminating the DNA samples. This will result in sample failure. Smoking is also an issue- if you smoke shortly before taking the DNA sample you may again ruin the sample and you will not get a DNA test result. Inside the home kit for your paternity test you will be given very clear instructions and how to collect the samples which means that any errors and sample failures are because the person collecting the samples has made a mistake.
• Sample failure can happen sometimes with non-standard samples such as hair, cigarette butts, razor blades or envelopes. These types of samples offer different probabilities of laboratory DNA extraction – with some samples, the probability of success is pretty low; with others it is very high. You will however, be fully advised on which samples work best and which offer lower success rates before you submit the samples. Sometimes, with low success rate samples like cigarette butts or toothbrushes, it is worth taking the risk of possible sample failure if this is the only sample you have.
More information about paternity testing at home can be found by clicking here.
If your samples fail, laboratories will still have gone through the usual procedures in trying to extract the DNA and it is only once they have started the actual test that analysts can realize that the sample has not yielded enough DNA or degraded DNA to produce conclusive results. This means that you cannot be reimbursed the money as the laboratory will still have invested time and costs to try to extract the DNA.
Most companies will nevertheless, offer to test additional samples at a reduced cost. Generally, you may be charged for a new DNA test kit. Whichever the case, you will still get your paternity test results, although you may have wait a bit longer and resubmit other samples.
