ORAL MANIFESTATIONS OF COVID-19

Some oral manifestations have been observed in patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). However, there is still a question about whether these lesions are due to coronavirus infection or secondary manifestations resulting from patient\u27s stress, medications, and/or other related immunosuppressive factors and systemic conditions or by the actions of opportunistic infections brought by other viruses, bacteria, and fungi in the oral cavity. There is growing evidence that angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2), the main host cell receptor of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), is highly expressed on the cells of the oral mucosal epithelia and of the salivary glands, which may explain the development of dysgeusia in patients with COVID-19. Hence, it is important to understand if SARS-CoV-2 can infect and replicate in oral cells causing other oral manifestations and lesions. Based on a short review of the literature, this study aims to report on the oral lesions detected in patients diagnosed with COVID-19 from March 2020 to March 2021, focusing on the correlation of clinical and pathological features to analyze the possible effect of the SARS-CoV-2 as the etiological factor