Improving Extraction Site Healing and Preserving Bone with PRF

Choukroun's PRF to Enhance Dental Extraction Healing

Dental researchers are continuously supplying surgeons with advancements to improve tooth extraction site healing. Along with shorter and less painful courses of healing, innovations are resulting in less bone loss and better ridge preservation in preparation for implant placement. Among the most successful techniques recently employed following extractions is the placement of protein-rich fibrin (PRF) in the extraction socket.

Pioneered and developed by Dr. Joseph Choukroun, PRF is obtained by taking a blood draw from the patient on the day of surgery, and preparing it with a centrifuge to produce a gelatinous plug of material that is bathed in blood serum that is rich in growth factors. The gelatinous plugs are pressed into membranes for use at the extraction site. The PRF membranes are utilized to fill and/or cover the extraction socket and sutured into place.

PRF Stimulates Dental Wound Healing

The PRF membranes promote wound healing and oral tissue regeneration due to their extended bioactivity and high levels of growth factors and glycoproteins. The membranes are in essence optimized blood clots capable of jump starting healing and releasing the patient's autologous growth factors into the core of the extraction socket for 7 days post-operatively. PRF membranes stimulate the proliferation of multiple cell types: osteoblasts, fibroblasts, keratinocytes, and adipocytes. They additionally promote cellular differentiation and angiogenesis, resulting in increased vascularization within the healing socket, leading to enhanced osteogenesis while helping to prevent early bone resorption in the potential implant site.

For an in-depth continuing education course on PRF visit Choukroun's PRF Technique