THE GATEWAY TO ORAL HEALTH: Helping the Respiratory-at-Risk Breathe Easier
Entrenched as we are today in the prevalence of COVID-19 and its disturbingly relentless resurgences, it behooves us to consider the viral gateway that has made such devastation possible. Accumulating evidence over the past decade has suggested that oral disorders, particularly periodontal disease may indeed influence the course of respiratory infections.
The gateway? Inflammation creates bacterial plaque which can be aspirated into the lungs where colonization and infection result in airway compromise, increased immunological susceptibility, and full-on obstructive pulmonary infection.
Consequently, eliminating gum disease from this picture could prove to be of significant…




rogressive cognitive decline that occurs during Alzheimer’s disease
ase and atherosclerosis. And, of course, the operative word in all arterial infections - in fact all systemic infection - is “inflammation.”