EFP releases animation on associations between periodontitis and Covid-19 complications

The EFP has released a short video animation that highlights findings on the associations between periodontitis and Covid-19 complications.

The educational animation, designed for dissemination via social media, uses data from a Qatari case-control study – published in the EFP’s Journal of Clinical Periodontology (JCP) in February – which showed an association between periodontitis and worse outcomes in patients with Covid-19.

According to this research, carried out in Qatar by Qatari, Canadian, and Spanish researchers, Covid-19 patients with periodontitis were 3.5 times more likely to be admitted to intensive care, 4.5 times more likely to need a ventilator, and almost nine times more likely to die compared to those without the gum disease.

As well as communicating these data, the video calls on people to take care of their oral health as something crucial to their general health and issues a reminder that dental clinics are safe places to visit which have rigorous protocols in relation to Covid-19.

_{Marouf N, Cai W, Said KN, et al. Association between periodontitis and severity of COVID-19 infection: a case-control study. J Clin Periodontol. 2021. doi:10.1111/jcpe.13435.}