Is periodontal disease a risk factor for severe COVID-19 illness?

Periodontal disease (PD) comprises a group of diseases involving inflammatory aspects of the host and dysbiotic events that affect periodontal tissues and could have systemic implications. Diverse factors and comorbidities have been closely associated with PD such as diabetes, obesity, aging, hypertension, and so on; although, underlying mechanisms or causal associations have not been established completely. Interestingly, these same factors have been widely associated with progression or severe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), an illness caused by coronavirus SARS-CoV-2.