The Impact of COVID-19 on the Oral Health of Patients with Special Needs.

In March 2020, the World Health Organization declared a global public health emergency due to the spread of COVID-19, and medical and dental elective care was suspended, disproportionally affecting persons with special needs. As many of the special needs population live in a communal environment, they were at higher risk of being infected with and dying of COVID-19. Consequently, their access to medical and dental services was limited to emergency care.

Update and review of the gerodontology prospective for 2020's: Linking the interactions of oral (hypo)-functions to health vs. systemic diseases.

New lines of evidence suggest that the oral-systemic medical links and oral hypo-function are progressively transcending beyond the traditional clinical signs and symptoms of oral diseases. Research into the dysbiotic microbiome, host immune/inflammatory regulations and patho-physiologic changes and subsequent adaptations through the oral-systemic measures under ageism points to pathways leading to mastication deficiency, dysphagia, signature brain activities for (neuro)-cognition circuitries, dementia and certain cancers of the digestive system as well. Therefore, the coming era of oral health-linked systemic disorders will likely reshape the future of diagnostics in oral geriatrics, treatment modalities and professional therapies in clinical disciplines.

Dental and Oral Health Care in Nursing Homes: Results from Two Multi-Stakeholder Surveys.

Study Objective: To characterize oral health practices using data from statewide, multi-stakeholder surveys.

Study Design And Methods: We analyzed data from two Rhode Island surveys. Together, the surveys targeted all nursing homes, residents, and resident representatives in Rhode Island, and asked about staff training on mouth care, frequency of dental provider visits, enrollment in nursing home dental programs, and barriers to oral health.

Oral HPV Infection Is Common Worldwide, but Risk of Infection Differs by Sex, Continent, Population at Infection, and Year.

Article Title And Bibliographic Information: The epidemiology of oral human papillomavirus infection in healthy populations: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Tam S, Fu S, Xu L, Krause KJ, Lairson DR, Miao H, Sturgis EM, Dahlstrom KR. Oral Oncol 2018;82:91-9.