In the midst of the on-going COVID-19 pandemic response, the use of masks has become a hardly debated controversy. One side believes everyone should just wear masks claiming there are no downsides even though it might not be 100% effective. The other side believes that mandating mask is against our civil liberty and should not be forced on people. To go beyond the pro- and anti-dialectics we must adopt a systems approach to find the real problem and the real solution. Systems science reveals an interconnection between masks and oral health. If there is a shift from a commensal to a pathogenic oral microbiome, it causes an imbalance of oral homeostasis, phenomena called dysbiosis, which not only affects the mouth but other body sites.
