A patient having a tooth implant at Tygerberg Hospital. Picture: BRENTON GEACH.
Several international studies have found links between dental issues, lockdown and Covid-19. This is after people who have been infected with the virus are now reporting teeth loss and gum problems.
The British Heart Foundation said evidence from several medical journals showed Covid-19 has a negative impact on blood vessels.
This is worrying for those with heart or blood pressure issues as it could also affect the supply of blood to teeth and could explain why dentally fit patients are starting to come forward with stories of teeth loss.
Countries like the US have reported cases of patients losing their teeth after surviving the virus.
There’s no accurate evidence yet that the virus can lead to teeth loss or related problems. Dry mouths, which people have been reporting, are also linked to medication like antibiotics, not necessarily the virus.
The Weekend Argus reached out to the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) to find out whether they have any data that links oral health to Covid-19.
“Unfortunately, we have not collected any data on Covid and oral health from either our hospital surveillance or Long Covid study,” said NICD’s Sinenhlanhla Jimoh.
Professor Riaan Mulder from the Department of Prosthetic Dentistry at the University of the Western Cape (UWC), who is a dentist and holds a PhD in Paediatric Dentistry, said he has noticed at the university and in his private practice that patients have experienced an increase in dental-related problems due to a general reduction in oral health.
He said this is possibly down to behaviour, like cracked teeth from stress-induced grinding or gum disease from poor hygiene in lockdown.
“This is primarily a side effect of the Covid-19 pandemic, the result of more than two years of reduced oral hygiene practices, unbalanced diets, long working hours and stress-related grinding of teeth. It is essential that all oral health care practitioners do a periodontal screening and thorough intra-oral and extra-oral examination for their patients.”
Professor Mulder added that periodontal disease is an important dental disease that should be considered of high priority for Covid-19 and general health.
He continued that Covid-19 has had a large impact on the world’s healthcare system, and oral health has also suffered.
“We are still unsure of the true direct impact of Covid-19 on oral health. The problem with research studies is that the obtained results are self-reported by patients and not recorded at the moment of positive Covid-19 disease presence. This method of data collection results in a level of bias.”
He does, however, admit that the oral cavity does contain receptors like ACE2 and TMPRSS2 in the epithelial cells and the salivary glands.
“Therefore, it is likely that Covid-19 can bind to these receptors in the oral cavity and obtain entry into the body. Patients that have periodontal disease have a collective surface of about 40cm², which is similar to an open wound where this Covid-19 could occur.
“At this stage, the results of Covid-19 in relation to oral health is still not conclusive, but patients with periodontal disease do have a larger risk for hospitalisation, ICU submission as well as ventilator use. This is because periodontal disease and respiratory symptoms are well established in the dental literature.”
Research has also shown that active periodontal disease will exacerbate Covid-19 infections because it is well known now that: periodontopathic bacteria were previously identified in aspirational pneumonia and with an increase in viral respiratory infections.
This has a direct relationship with the severity of Covid-19 symptoms, according to professor Mulder, and patients above 65 are more prone to have undiagnosed periodontal disease due to less regular dental visits, multiple health and nutrition-related deficiencies and the use of multiple chronic medications.
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