IMAGE: GETTY/ Kathrin Ziegler
There are early indications that the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic is taking a serious, and potentially long-lasting, toll on our oral health. Only within the past few decades have researchers begun to appreciate the extent to which oral health is inextricable from a person鈥檚 overall physical, emotional, and psychological wellbeing.
The mouth harbors bacteria and other microorganisms that interact with bodily systems in ways that are only starting to be understood. Stress and dietary changes can alter the oral microbiome as well. All of which suggests that the pandemic could affect people鈥檚 oral health鈥攁nd thus the rest of their biology鈥攊n unpredictable ways, says , director of dental research and research associate professor in the at 嘿嘿视频. 鈥淢y fear is that the populations that were vulnerable before COVID-19 are going to get walloped,鈥 she adds.
The groups hardest hit by COVID-19鈥攁mong them older adults and Black, Latino, Indigenous, and immigrant communities鈥攚ere already the most likely to experience from cavities, gum disease, and oral cancer. And before the pandemic, about a third of adults were not receiving preventive oral healthcare. This deficit has become 鈥渁 marker of poverty鈥 in America, says Dr. Northridge, an author of a published in the Annual Review of Public Health.
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