What is it?  A by-product of blood that is rich in platelets.  New technology permits the doctor to harvest and produce a sufficient quantity of platelets from only 10-20mls of blood drawn from the patient while they are having outpatient oral surgery.

Why all the excitement about PRF? PRF permits the body to take advantage of the normal healing pathways at a greatly accelerated rate.  Platelets perform many functions:  including formation of a blood clot and release of growth factors (GF) into the wound.

 PRF has many clinical applications

• Bone grafting for dental implants. This includes sinus lift procedures & jaw augmentation procedures.
• Repair of bone defects created by removal of teeth (including wisdom teeth) or small cysts.
• Repair of fistulas between the sinus cavity and mouth.

PRF also has many advantages

• Safety: PRF is a by-product of the patients own blood, therefore, disease transmission is not an issue.
• Faster healing: The supersaturation of the wound with PRF, and thus growth factors produces an increase of tissue synthesis and thus faster tissue regeneration.
• Cost effectiveness: Since PRF harvesting is done in the doctor’s office; the patient need not incur the expense of the harvesting procedure in hospital or at the blood bank.
• Other known benefits: Reduces pain and swelling after surgery, protects the wound site from infection, and decreases the chance of bone pathology and dry socket after dental extractions.