Oral lesions associated with COVID-19: A systematic review

Stomatologija. 2021;23(1):3-8.

Abstract

Background: Oral lesions has been reported in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). However, there are gaps about the occurrence. The aim of this study was to describe the clinical characteristics of oral lesions in patients with COVID-19.

Methods: A systematic review was conducted in four electronic databases (PubMed, Lilacs, Cochrane and Google Scholar) with the search terms: "coronavírus", "COVID-19", "SARS-CoV-2", "novel coronavírus", "2019nCoV", "oral manifestation", "mucosal lesions", "oral lesions", "mucosa viral lesions" and "oral conditions". Articles were limited to those published between january and july 2020, and in English.

Results: Initially, 182 articles were found, after reading the titles and abstracts a total of 24 records were included for full-text reading. Finally, 22 articles were included for data extraction and assessement. We identified and subsequently discussed clinical characteristics and differential diagnosis.

Conclusions: The etiology of many oral mucosal lesions is intimately related to infectious, immunological, and psychosocial factors. Therefore, amid the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic in which many doubts about the disease still remain, caution is needed when evaluating patients and establishing correlations with other diseases that could be associated.

Publication types

  • Systematic Review

MeSH terms

  • COVID-19*
  • Humans
  • Oral Ulcer*
  • SARS-CoV-2