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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Public Health
Sec. Infectious Diseases: Epidemiology and Prevention
Volume 12 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2024.1421380
This article is part of the Research Topic Women in Science: Infectious Diseases: Epidemiology and Prevention 2023 View all 16 articles

Can periodontitis affect the COVID-19 severity, symptoms, hospital stay, and mortality?: A case-control study

Provisionally accepted
Aditi Chopra Aditi Chopra 1,2*Shravya Marcherla Shravya Marcherla 1,2Venkitachalam Ramanarayanan Venkitachalam Ramanarayanan 3Rajat S. Das Rajat S. Das 1,2Rupesh Garg Rupesh Garg 1,2
  • 1 Manipal College of Dental Sciences, Manipal, Manipal, India
  • 2 Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Manipal, Karnataka, India
  • 3 Amrita School of Dentistry, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham University, Kochi, Kerala, India

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Background/ purpose: Poor oral hygiene and periodontal disease have been identified as a potential risk factor for the Coronavirus virus disease of 2019 (COVID-19). The present study aims to determine the association between periodontitis and COVID-19 severity, nature of symptoms, mortality, and hospital stay.Methods: 163 COVID-19-positive patients (Males-93; Females-70) were divided into control (asymptomatic-mild symptoms; N= 120) and case (moderate-severe symptoms; N= 43). The severity of periodontal disease, Oral hygiene status (OHI), pocket depth (PD), bleeding on probing (BOP), number of decayed/ missing/ filled teeth, mortality, duration of stay in hospital, oxygen requirement, nature of COVID-19 symptoms were assessed in both the groups. Association between the severity of periodontitis and COVID-19 was done with age, gender, comorbidities, oral hygiene, and smoking status.Results: Periodontitis increases the severity of COVID-19 by 3.7 times (p=0.002). A statistically significant difference was noted for symptoms like dizziness (p=0.036), running nose/cold (p=0.009), and headache (p=0.005) in the presence of periodontitis. The risk estimation of death to live with periodontitis was 1.03. The mean duration of stay was higher in individuals with periodontitis compared to control.There is a positive association between periodontal disease and COVID-19. Periodontitis is a potential risk for COVID-19. It increases the severity of COVID-19 and alters the symptoms.Hence, periodontal disease management should be an integral part of managing patients with coronavirus infection.

    Keywords: 19 severity, Symptoms, Hospital stay, and mortality?: Aa case-control study Periodontitis and COVID-19 Severity Coronavirus disease, COVID-19, Periodontitis, Periodontal disease, SARS-CoV-2

    Received: 22 Apr 2024; Accepted: 12 Aug 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Chopra, Marcherla, Ramanarayanan, Das and Garg. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Aditi Chopra, Manipal College of Dental Sciences, Manipal, Manipal, India

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