Oral Hygiene and COVID-19 spread

WOODBRIDGE, Va. - Nov. 17, 2020 - PRLog -- Think about your overall health. Bad oral hygiene can have an impact on your overall health. British researchers have found a link between poor oral hygiene and the severity of COVID-19. Their study titled "Could there be a link between oral hygiene and the severity of SARS-CoV-2 infections?" was published in the latest issue of the British Dental Journal.

The team wrote, "Good oral hygiene has been recognized as a means to prevent airway infections in patients, especially in those over the age of 70." Those with periodontal disease are at a 25 percent raised risk of heart disease, thrice the risk of getting diabetes, and 20 percent raised risk of getting high blood pressure, the researchers wrote. These are all risk factors of severe COVID-19, they wrote.

Conclusions and Implications

This study concludes that 20 percent of the patients with COVID-19 progress to severe illness with high levels of "inflammatory markers (IL-2, IL-6, IL-10), bacteria, and neutrophil-to-lymphocyte count". They noted that the oral microbial environment and COVID-19 could be linked. The four essential risk factors for severe COVID-19, diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, and obesity, are also associated with poor oral hygiene, they wrote. They recommend "oral hygiene be maintained, if not improved, during a SARS-CoV-2 infection in order to reduce the bacterial load in the mouth and the potential risk of bacterial superinfection." These precautions are particularly important for those with diabetes, heart disease hypertension, they wrote.

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Learn more about the measures Woodbridge Smiles has taken: woodbridgesmiles.net/covid19-precautions/ (https://www.woodbridgesmiles.net/covid19-precautions/).