Could gum bacteria fuel scleroderma? a new study digs in

Copied word for word from the study's registry entry, so the wording is the study team's rather than ours.

Inclusion Criteria: Common inclusion criteria * Men or women over 18 (adults) * Affiliation to a social health insurance plan * Subject able to understand the aims and risks of the research and to give signed informed consent form prior to the inclusion in the study * More than 12 teeth suitable for evaluation Inclusion criteria for systemic sclerosis patients * Systemic sclerosis patient with a diagnosis based on the American College of Rheumatology/European League Against Rheumatism criteria (LeRoy et al., 1988 ; van den Hoogen et al., 2013) * Diagnosis made during the 2 years preceding study inclusion (early form of the disease) Inclusion criteria for controls \- Patient attending the Oral Medicine and Surgery Department from the University Hospital of Strasbourg for a routine dental consultation Exclusion Criteria: * \- Subject under court protection * Subject under guardianship or curatorship * Pregnancy or breastfeeding * Impossibility to provide accurate information (emergency situation, comprehension difficulties…) * Subject currently involved in another clinical trial or in an exclusion period following participation in another clinical trial * Smoking (≥ 10 cigarettes per day) * Other associated systemic auto-immune disease (Sjögren syndrome with positive serum anti-SSA and/or anti-SSB auto-antibodies, systemic lupus erythematosus…) * Progressive chronic illness other than systemic sclerosis * Acute infection at inclusion * Progressive cancer or cancer diagnosed within 2 years prior to the study * Ongoing antibiotic and/or antifungal treatment or within 3 months prior to inclusion * Probiotics and/or prebiotics intake within 3 months prior to inclusion * Oral antiseptics within the week before inclusion (chlorhexidin mouthwashes…) * Risk of infective endocarditis * Corticosteroids ≥10 mg/day and/or proton pump inhibitors within 3 months prior to inclusion * Previous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation * Another cause of skin sclerosis (radiotherapy of the orofacial area…) * Periodontal specialized treatments, root and/or periodontal surgical treatment and/or subgingival instrumentation within the year before inclusion