COVID-19 and Gums
In the United States, very few of our day to day lives have not been affected by COVID-19 since March 2020. We have changed the way we travel, the way we interact with each other, and even the way we grocery shop to improve our chances of staying healthy during a global pandemic. Research is still being done on the virus, the way it infects the body, and the long term effects of the disease after the infection clears. It is certainly obvious that the virus affects different people in various ways and in different systems in the body. New research is showing that there are strong correlations between gingivitis and COVID-19. You can suffer from gum disease without having COVID-19 and you can have COVID-19 without having gum disease, but the combination of the two is showing that one can exacerbate the other.
While gingivitis is the first stage of gum disease, it causes problems that extend beyond the gums. When it is in its early stages, gum disease can be stopped and even reversed when you seek professional treatment from the dentist. If gingivitis is not treated, then it will progress to periodontitis. Upwards of three fourths of American adults suffer from gum disease in one form or the other and the majority of those cases are a result of poor at-home dental care habits and infrequent dental exams. We all know that plaque and bacteria can lead to tooth decay and cavities, but it can cause the gum to separate from the tooth. The result is loose teeth, swollen gums, red gums, bleeding gums, and bone loss. Eventually you will lose the tooth entirely and possibly even lose jaw bone density.
As the bacteria starts to grow along the gum line and even under the gums, the body will use an inflammatory response to address the bacterial infection. The body uses white blood cells to swarm the detected infection in a process that’s called a cytokine storm. Any time the body uses this process proteins enter the bloodstream and can cause inflammation in other parts of the body and slow the healing process overall. The Journal of the California Dental Association published a study in October 2020 about the relationship between the effects of COVID-19 and gum disease. The peer reviewed study showed that people who had gum disease and were hospitalized with COVID-19 were at a higher risk for respiratory failure than the people who did not have gum disease. The results of the study even detailed how people who have persistent gum disease and periodontitis are the same people who had more severe COVID-19 complications. If your body is already responding to infection in your mouth that has not been addressed, then your body is not able to address the viral infection as well. The inflammation proteins already in the bloodstream can lead to more serious damage to the lungs, putting the lungs at risk of failure and the need to be put on a ventilator.