Cut your finger, and your body immediately gets to work. The bleeding slows, then stops. Specialized cells start cleaning up damaged tissue. Chemical signals summon additional cells to the area. New blood vessels begin to form.
Gradually, the wound closes and strengthens.
Most of us never think much about this process. We simply expect the healing to happen. Yet it’s an incredibly complex process — just like the healing after oral surgery, including the placement of dental implants.
While implants provide the foundation for replacement teeth, successful healing depends on much more than the implant itself. Both the surrounding bone and the soft tissues must heal while the implants integrate with them over time. In fact, this is some of the most important work that happens –after the implant surgery itself.
That’s why we use additional tools designed to support your body’s natural healing process, including platelet-rich fibrin (PRF).
PRF is made from a small sample of each patient’s own blood, ensuring 100% biocompatibility. We then spin it in a special centrifuge to form a fibrin-rich matrix that contains platelets, growth factors, leukocytes, and other immune-active cells involved in healing. It’s ultimately placed at the surgical site to deliver those raw materials for tissue repair and the formation of new blood vessels.
A systematic review and meta-analysis published last month in Odontology explored the evidence for how PRF affects soft tissue augmentation around dental implants. That’s a procedure done to add volume, thickness, or firmness to gum tissue, both for the sake of appearance and to improve long-term outcomes. Thirteen studies involving 264 adult patients were included, with nine selected for meta-analysis.
Its authors found that at 6 months after treatment, patients who received PRF had significantly improved soft tissue thickness compared to those who got only the implant, with no PRF. Platelet-rich fibrin was also found to increase the amount of firm, resilient gum tissue surrounding the implant.
More research remains to be done on longer–term outcomes, as the authors note in their conclusion.
Now, those study results may not sound all that dramatic, yet it’s quite important once you consider the important role that healthy gum tissue plays when it comes to implants.
An implant isn’t just a replacement tooth anchored in bone. It exists within a living system of gum tissue, blood vessels, immune cells, and oral bacteria. The health of the surrounding tissues can influence comfort, appearance, maintenance, and ultimately the long-term success of dental implants.
Platelet-rich fibrin is just one way in which we can help create the healthiest possible environment for healing and the osseointegration of the zirconia dental implants we place in our patients.
Like the ozone we also use in these procedures, PRF is hardly meant to replace the body’s natural healing abilities. They amplify and support what the body is already carrying out on its own.
