Does poor oral hygiene increase the risk of Covid-19?

The results of a study show that there is a potential link between poor oral hygiene and the complications of Covid-19.

According to a report published in the British Dental Journal, researchers have studied the role of oral bacteria in exacerbating coronavirus disease and complications such as pneumonia and acute respiratory distress syndrome (SARS), which is the most important complication of Covid-19. It becomes.
Dentists have been aware of the direct connection between the mouth and other parts of the body for years. Many dentists even emphasize that the mouth is actually a mirror of each person's health. When a person's health condition is poor, the mouth also shows this bad condition with problems such as inflammation, gum disease and increased dental caries. However, this important connection between the mouth and other parts of the body is still overlooked or forgotten by many. But new research findings, such as the one published in Covid-19, show that treating various problems in the body and trying to improve oral health should be pursued together to reduce the level of oral bacteria.

The vital role of bacteria
The average age of patients with severe complications of Covid-19 is about 69 years, and this is not a good sign at all for communities with a large elderly population. The most severe complications of Covid-19 include problems such as acute respiratory distress syndrome, pneumonia, sepsis, septic shock, and the formation of blood clots in the body. People are even more likely to die from these side effects than from Covid-19 itself.
Despite the proven importance of co-infection in severe viral illnesses, these co-infections are often not considered in acute respiratory infections. Of course, diagnosing concomitant infections is also a complex and time-consuming process. For this reason, it is suggested that the role of concomitant bacterial infections during the spread of epidemics such as coronavirus be investigated.
Various studies have shown that 80% of patients with Covid-19 admitted to the ICU have an exceptional and severe bacterial load and require the use of antibiotics. Statistics even show that in a country like Italy, 84% of ICU patients needed antibiotics because of Covid-19. This information tells us that bacteria play a vital role in the development of Covid-19 as well as the severity of the disease.

Why oral bacteria?
While the idea of ​​concomitant infection was accepted by the medical community during the Covid-19 outbreak, the idea that infectious bacteria in these concomitant infections originated in the mouth is a new one. Even research findings have shown that the four main diseases associated with an increased risk of Covid-19 and death from the virus are linked to gum disease. Periodontopathic bacteria are involved in general inflammation of the body, the spread of bacteria in the blood or bacteraemia, and pneumonia, researchers say. Examination of the metagenome of patients with severe coovid-19 also reveals high levels of Staphylococcus aureus and Fusobacterium nucleotum, both of which are oral organisms.
Oral bacteria actually provide an ideal substrate for aspiration into the respiratory tract and can even exacerbate problems such as pneumonia and sepsis. Therefore, if one's oral health is in poor condition, the risk of bacterial exchanges between the mouth and lungs is greatly increased. This danger is especially significant in the current context of the global Covid-19 epidemic.

Source: Dentistry