Improving the Science of Dentistry

Accelerated Tissue Healing - Regeneration

Recent research has shown that certain properties of our own blood cells, namely: platelets, plasma, and white blood cells have a profound effect for accelerating tissue regeneration that typically takes place with all forms of surgery.

The bioactive proteins carried by platelets are currently being used successfully in both hospitals and private practice office settings for wound healing in several surgical disciplines including orthopedic, neurology, otolaryngology, cardiovascular, vascular, general, plastic and reconstructive, pediatrics and in oral surgeries.

The plasma proteins are derived from the patient’s own blood within just a few short minutes with a specially designed centrifuge and permit the body to take advantage of the normal healing pathways at a greatly accelerated rate. During the healing process, the body rushes many cells and cell-types to the wound in order to initiate the healing process. One of those cell types is platelets. Platelets perform many functions, including formation of a blood clot and release of growth factors into the wound. These Growth Factors function to assist the body in repairing itself by stimulating stem cells to regenerate new tissue. The more growth factors released sequestered into the wound, the more stem cells stimulated to produce new host tissue. Thus, one can easily see that Platelets Rich in Plasma permits the body to heal faster and more efficiently.

Platelets Rich in Plasma (PRP) has many clinical applications:

1. Bone grafting for dental implants. This includes onlay and inlay grafts, sinus lift procedures, ridge augmentation procedures, and closure of cleft, lip and palate defects.
2. Repair of bone defects creating by removal of teeth or small cysts.
3. Repair of fistulas between the sinus cavity and mouth.

Platelets Rich in Plasma (PRP) also has many advantages:

1. Safety: PRP is a by-product of the patient’s own blood, therefore, disease transmission is not an issue.
2. Convenience: PRP can be generated in the doctor’s office while the patient is undergoing an outpatient surgical procedure, such as placement of dental implants.
3. Faster healing: The supersaturation of the wound with PRP, and thus growth factors, produces an increase of tissue synthesis and thus faster tissue regeneration.
4. Cost effectiveness: Since PRP harvesting is done with only 55 cc of blood.
5. Ease of use: PRP is easy to handle and actually improves the ease of application of bone substitute materials and bone grafting products by making them more gel-like.

By Dr. Monica Muñoz
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