Prof. Sarah Cousty

Hospital Practitioner, Oral Surgery and Oral Medicine Associate Director of the Department of Dentistry of Toulouse (France) Head of the department of Oral Surgery and Oral Medicine Sarah Cousty, DDS, PhD, is an oral surgeon, Head of the Department of Oral Medicine and Oral Surgery in Paul Sabatier University and Toulouse Hospital. She is in charge of oral surgery residents and associate Dean of Toulouse’s School of Dental Medicine, in charge of Education. Her clinical activity is focused on oral medicine. She is co-responsible for the consultation of oral disease and oral dermatology at Toulouse University Hospital. In this Hospital, she is the referring physician for oral management in several rare diseases, such as scleroderma or ichthyosis. She completed a PhD in Electrical Engineering, Electrotechnical studies Telecommunications and Plasmas in 2007. Since then, her research has focused on the biomedical applications of gaseous plasmas, and she is a researcher at LAPLACE (Laboratory on Plasma and Conversion of Energy). She started her research in « plasma medicine » in the theme of sterilization. Now, her interests are focused on therapeutical applications of cold plasmas, for instance in oral mucosa pathology. She is vice-chair of the COST-action « PasTHER » (European Cooperation in Science and Technology CA20114 - Therapeutical applications of Cold Plasmas

TITLE

Musculo-articular and postural characteristics of patients with systemic scleroderma: pilot study using electromyography, mandibular motion and stabilometry. Systemic scleroderma (SSc) is a rare autoimmune disease characterized by an autoimmune-mediated microangiopathy and progressive fibrosis. Orofacial manifestations of SSc are common, contributing greatly to overall disease burden and yet are regularly overlooked and under-treated. As SSc is a progressive disease, leading to a limitation of mouth opening making dental care difficult, a systematic oral and dental health assessment should be taken rapidly after the diagnosis of SSc. Limited mouth opening, defined as less than 40 mm, is due to microstomia caused by cutaneous and muscular sclerosis. It leads to difficulties in eating, oral hygiene and dental care, especially in the posterior region of the mouth, prosthetic rehabilitation, and can also lead to difficulty with mastication and deglutition. It can also have an impact on the ability to speak and exert facial expressions with overall functional, aesthetic and psycho-social consequences. In addition, the limitation of mandibular movements increases temporo-mandibular joint damage. Mouth opening can be impaired by tissue remodeling of the TMJ capsule demonstrated by a significantly reduced mean interincisal distance compared with the general population. We present a pilot study of musculoarticular phenotype of patients with SSc, by using surface electromyography, mandibular motion, and stabilometry. The aim of this work is to evaluate the impact of the severity of scleroderma involvement on the musculoskeletal system.