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. 2022 Aug 17;19(16):10228.
doi: 10.3390/ijerph191610228.

Oral Lesions Following Anti-SARS-CoV-2 Vaccination: A Systematic Review

Federica Di Spirito  1 , Alessandra Amato  2 , Maria Pia Di Palo  1 , Maria Contaldo  3 , Francesco D'Ambrosio  1 , Roberto Lo Giudice  4 , Massimo Amato  1
Affiliations

Oral Lesions Following Anti-SARS-CoV-2 Vaccination: A Systematic Review

Federica Di Spirito et al. Int J Environ Res Public Health. .

Abstract

Increasing evidence relate anti-SARS-CoV-2 vaccinations to orofacial adverse reactions, therefore, the present systematic review aimed to evaluate primary oral lesions diagnosed in adult subjects, following the WHO Emergency Use Listing approved and EMA authorized vaccines, also in relation to cases' age, gender, comorbidities, and history of COVID-19, and in relation to vaccine type and doses. The study protocol, registered on PROSPERO (CRD42022339032) and compliant with the PRISMA statement, included an electronic search across Scopus, MEDLINE/PubMed, BioMed Central databases, and PROSPERO, ended on 18 June 2022 and succeeded by a manual search, an independent data extraction, and arisk of bias evaluation through ROBINS-I tool. Qualitatively synthesized data from the 13studies included showed an overall low prevalence (16 cases), though higher in females (68.8%), of oral lesions, mainly erosions and ulcers (34.5%). Nine cases were diagnosed following Pfizer-BioNTech, two Moderna, and one AstraZeneca, Serum Institute of India, Sinopharm, and Johnson&Johnson vaccines, respectively; specifically, eight after the first dose and seven after the second. In one case, vaccine type and dose were not specified. Considering newly developing vaccines, presented findings may be updated and further studies needed to highlight factors affecting oral lesion occurrence and specific macro-microscopic phenotypes in relation to cases' and vaccines' characteristics.

Keywords: COVID-19; SARS-CoV-2; coronavirus disease 2019; oral lesions; vaccination; vaccine.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
PRISMA 2020 flow diagram for new systematic reviews, which included searches of databases and registers only.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Frequency of reported oral lesions following anti-SARS-CoV-2 vaccination.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Frequency of oral lesions based on WHO Emergency Use Listing approved and EMA authorized vaccines.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Definitive diagnoses.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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