Letter to the Editor
Comment on (Facial Atrophy in Oral Submucous Fibrosis:
An Association or a Coincidence)
Sonal Grover and George Koshy
Department of Oral & Maxillofacial Pathology & Microbiology, Christian Dental College, CMC, Ludhiana, Punjab, India
Correspondence should be addressed to Sonal Grover; sonalgrvr@yahoo.com
Received 18 July 2016; Accepted 8 September 2016
Academic Editor: Giuseppe Colella
Copyright © 2016 S. Grover and G. Koshy. Tis is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution
License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly
cited.
With reference to a case report titled “Facial Atrophy in
Oral Submucous Fibrosis: An Association or a Coincidence”
[1] published in your esteemed journal, we would like to
emphasize the importance of considering systemic sclerosis
(SS) as an important diferential diagnosis in oral submucous
fbrosis (OSMF).
Systemic sclerosis is a clinically heterogeneous gener-
alized disorder which afects the connective tissue of the
skin and internal organs such as gastrointestinal tract, lungs,
heart, and kidneys. It is characterized by enormous depo-
sition of collagen, alterations of the microvasculature, and
disturbances of the immune system [2]. Oral manifestations
in SS are very common and these include limited ability
to open the mouth, facial and tongue rigidity, thinning of
lips, xerostomia, periodontal disease, increased periodontal
ligament width, and osseous resorption of the mandible [2, 3].
A few decades back, plenty of cases have been reported with
neurological manifestations as well [4, 5].
Oral submucous fbrosis (OSMF) is a chronic insidious
collagen related disorder associated with betel quid chewing
and characterized by progressive hyalinization of the sub-
mucosa. Te hallmark of the disease is submucosal fbrosis
that afects most parts of the oral cavity, causing progressive
trismus with rigid lips, cheeks, pharynx, and upper third
of the esophagus leading to dysphagia [6]. Since extensive
fbrosis plays a key role in the pathogenesis of OSMF also, it
is not possible to distinguish OSMF from SS histologically.
In the OSMF case reported [1], the patient had extensive
atrophy of facial muscle along with restricted mouth opening.
Te striking fnding in this case was cerebral and cerebellum
atrophy. Tis fnding should have prompted the authors to
rule out the possibility of SS, as extensive facial atrophy with
neurological manifestations is more likely to be seen in SS
than in OSMF. Except for the epithelial dysplasia observed,
all the remaining fndings are common to SS as well. Te
epithelial dysplasia can easily be correlated with the long
term consumption of areca nut by the patient. Te diagnostic
criteria for SS are as given below:
Major Criterion
(i) Proximal difuse (truncal) sclerosis (skin tightness,
thickening, and nonpitting induration)
Minor Criteria
(i) Sclerodactyly (only fngers and/or toes)
(ii) Digital pitting scars or loss of substance of the digital
fnger pads (pulp loss)
(iii) Bibasilar pulmonary fbrosis
Te patient should fulfll the major criterion or two of the
three minor criteria.
Tus, through this letter, the authors intend to highlight
the diferential diagnosis of SS in OSMF cases involving parts
of the body other than the oral cavity and pharynx.
Competing Interests
Tere were no competing interests related to this paper.
Hindawi Publishing Corporation
Case Reports in Dentistry
Volume 2016, Article ID 5747458, 2 pages
http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2016/5747458