Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Diseases, Helsinki University and University Hospital, Helsinki, Finland.
Department of Preventive Dentistry, Faculty of Dental Sciences, College of Medicine, University of Lagos, Lagos, Nigeria.
Med Hypotheses. 2020 Nov;144:110276. doi: 10.1016/j.mehy.2020.110276. Epub 2020 Sep 16.
Periodontal disease is a chronic multifactorial infectious and inflammatory disease associated with several chronic systemic diseases, such as diabetes, cardiovascular diseases (CVD), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, hypertension, Alzheimer's disease and so on. These same systemic diseases have been associated with severe COVID-19 infections. Several recent studies have suggested hypotheses for the potential association between periodontal disease and severe COVID-19. Periodontal disease is also one of the most prevalent diseases globally. All this supports the importance of good oral health, also in the COVID-19 era. Thus, new strategies and approaches to identify patients at risk of periodontal disease could be beneficial to enhance secondary prevention, especially if targeted to COVID-19 risk groups. Diagnostic biomarkers for periodontal disease have been researched extensively. Potential biomarkers in oral fluid with currently available rapid non-invasive point-of-care technology, such as aMMP-8, could help to extend screening and identification of patients at risk for periodontal disease also to situations and places where professional dental expertise and equipment are limited or unavailable. i.e., nursing and care homes, and rural and distant places. The oral fluid point-of-care technologies could also be useful in the hands of medical professionals (diabetes, CVD, etc.) to identify patients at risk for undiagnosed periodontal disease and to refer them to a dentist for examination and evaluation. Finally, if there is a causality between periodontal disease and severe COVID-19 infections, these point-of-care oral fluid biomarker technologies could possibly also help in the assessment of the risk of deterioration and complications.
牙周病是一种慢性多因素感染性和炎症性疾病，与多种慢性系统性疾病有关，如糖尿病、心血管疾病 (CVD)、慢性阻塞性肺疾病、高血压、阿尔茨海默病等。这些相同的系统性疾病与严重的 COVID-19 感染有关。最近的几项研究提出了牙周病与严重 COVID-19 之间潜在关联的假设。牙周病也是全球最普遍的疾病之一。所有这些都支持良好口腔健康的重要性，即使在 COVID-19 时代也是如此。因此，寻找识别牙周病高危患者的新策略和方法可能有助于加强二级预防，尤其是针对 COVID-19 高危人群。牙周病的诊断生物标志物已得到广泛研究。口腔液中具有当前可用的快速非侵入性即时护理技术的潜在生物标志物，如 aMMP-8，可以帮助扩展对牙周病高危患者的筛查和识别，也可以扩展到专业牙科专业知识和设备有限或无法使用的情况和地点，如护理院、养老院、农村和偏远地区。即时护理口腔液技术在医疗专业人员（糖尿病、CVD 等）手中也可能有用，可用于识别有未确诊牙周病风险的患者，并将他们转介给牙医进行检查和评估。最后，如果牙周病与严重 COVID-19 感染之间存在因果关系，这些即时护理口腔液生物标志物技术也可能有助于评估恶化和并发症的风险。
