{
  "abstract": "Introduction Systemic sclerosis (SSc), also known as scleroderma, is a chronic autoimmune disease marked by excessive collagen deposition and vasculopathy, leading to significant tissue fibrosis. Oral and facial manifestations of SSc, particularly involving the lips, are common and can greatly affect patient quality of life. This review explores factors such as age, gender, ethnicity, and lifestyle on lip health to understand how the lips are assessed and how those assessments can be transferred to studying the lip in SSc.Material and Methods A comprehensive literature search was conducted via PubMed, Embase and web of science using keywords related to systemic sclerosis, lip health, and associated factors such as ethnicity, gender, lifestyle and age.Results The lips play a critical role in facial expression, communication, and appearance. Factors such as gender differences, aging patterns, ethnicity, and lifestyle, such as smoking or playing instruments, all affect the lips in different ways. Additionally, there remains little standardization across these groups to accurately assess lip functionality and size, leading to further research inconsistencies.Conclusions The impact of lip involvement in SSc represents significant unmet clinical needs. Given the variation in assessment of the lips in the literature, as well as natural lip variation due to ethnicity, aging and gender, accurate research for the lip in SSc represents a logistical challenge. Further research is needed to develop standardized outcome measures and therapies to address the orofacial complications of this disease.",
  "authors": [
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Albany Medical College, Albany, NY, USA"
      ],
      "name": "Mustafa Mahmood"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "The university of Manchester, Manchester, UK, UK",
        "Salford Care Organization, Salford, UK, UK"
      ],
      "name": "Michael Hughes"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "UTHealth Houston, Houston, TX, USA"
      ],
      "name": "Zsuzsanna McMahan"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Albany Medical College, Albany, NY, USA",
        "Steffens Scleroderma Foundation, Albany, NY, USA"
      ],
      "name": "Lee Shapiro"
    }
  ],
  "title": "P.372 The lip in scleroderma: variability, assessment, and clinical gaps",
  "uid": "71fc20ac-8e5e-5c72-a68c-cf98b28f717e"
}