COVID patients who also have gum disease are nine times as likely to die from COVID

Oral bacteria are implicated in a large number of comorbidities that are labelled COVID

COVID patients who also have gum disease are 3.5 times as likely to be admitted to intensive care compared to those without. They are also 4.5 times as likely to need to be put on a ventilator and nine times as likely to die from COVID.

Once the mouth’s bacteria become aggravated, they can cause gum disease, chewing away at the tissues of the mouth and entering the blood stream. And once there, the bacteria can then flow around the body and settle in various organs, raising levels of inflammation and over time contributing to various specific and chronic conditions.

A big problem with COVID and other respiratory viral illnesses are bacterial superinfections, i.e., when areas directly infected by the virus – such as the lungs and airways – are simultaneously infected with bacteria. 

Throughout the pandemic, studies have found that a large proportion of people dying from COVID – in some cases, 50%– were also infected with bacteria at the same time

Oral infections also contribute to more aggressive bacteria in the mouth, which could then easily be breathed into the airway and lungs to launch a superinfection.

The research is convincing: 

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41415-021-2656-1

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41415-020-1747-8

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33527378/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24320956/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8471920/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27468793/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3228943/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3809193/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31715080/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23666172/

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0254671

https://www.karger.com/Article/FullText/515067 https://academic.oup.com/ofid/article/8/3/ofab065/6128788