The Provision of Dental Care to COVID-19 Survivors: A Concise Review.

AIMS: It has been reported that there are a certain percentage of COVID-19 patients who recover but suffer from devastating permanent organ damage or failure. Others suffer from long Covid syndrome, with prolonged symptoms that persist more than 12 weeks. However, there is scarcity of literature regarding the provision of dental treatment for these two groups of patients. This manuscript reviews the impact of multi-system involvement on the provision of dental care to these patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A search of literature was done in PubMed-Medline and Scopus databases to review the available literature on COVID-19 impacts on pulmonary, cardiovascular, haematologic, renal, gastrointestinal, endocrine, and neurologic systems and respective management in dental clinical settings. RESULTS: The literature search from PubMed-Medline and Scopus databases resulted in 74 salient articles that contributed to the concise review on COVID-19 effects on pulmonary, cardiovascular, haematologic, renal, gastrointestinal, endocrine, and neurologic systems and/or its respective dental management recommendations. CONCLUSIONS: This concise review covers the management of post COVID-19 patients with pulmonary, cardiovascular, haematologic, renal, gastrointestinal, endocrine, or neurologic system complications.

Local and Systemic Expression Profile of IL-10, IL-17, IL-27, IL-35, and IL-37 in Periodontal Diseases: A Cross-sectional Study.

AIM: This study aimed to compare the level of interleukin (IL)-10, IL-17, IL-27, IL-35, and IL-37 in the gingival crevicular fluid (GCF) and human plasma of subjects with periodontal disease. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In this cross-sectional study conducted over a 3-month period at a primary dental clinic in Malaysia, 45 participants were recruited via consecutive sampling and assigned into three groups, namely healthy periodontium group (n = 15), gingivitis group (n = 15), and periodontitis group (n = 15). Gingival crevicular fluid and plasma samples were collected from each participant. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay test was conducted to measure the concentration of IL-10, IL-17, IL-27, IL-35, and IL-37. Kruskal-Wallis H test was used to compare the interleukin levels between patient groups. RESULTS: In GCF samples, IL-17 level was the highest in the periodontitis group (p <0.05), while IL-27 was the lowest (p <0.05). Meanwhile, plasma levels of IL-27 and IL-37 were significantly lower (p <0.05) in the periodontitis group, but plasma IL-35 levels were observed to rise with increasing disease severity. CONCLUSION: There are reduced local and systemic levels of IL-27 in periodontitis patients. CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE: Periodontal diseases exert both local and systemic effects, resulting in the destruction of the tooth-supporting structures and contributing to the systemic inflammatory burden. Some of the cytokines that were investigated in the current study, IL-17, IL-27, IL-35, and IL-37, can be potential biomarkers that warrant further longitudinal clinical studies to determine their usefulness as prognostic/diagnostic markers.