Today, new technology permits the doctor to harvest and produce a generous amount of PRP from just over an ounce of blood, drawn from
the patient while they are in our office on the day of their procedure. The blood is spun in a centrifuge and separated over several steps to produce the platelet-rich plasma concentrate. Typically, this process takes less than 30 minutes.
New technology permits the doctor to harvest and produce a sufficient quantity of platelets from only 1-2 ounces of blood drawn from the patient while they are in our office.
PRP permits 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 the formation of a blood clot and the release of growth factors (GF) into the wound. These GFs function to assist the body in repairing itself by stimulating stem cells to regenerate new tissue. The more growth factors released into the wound, the more stem cells are stimulated to produce new host tissue. Thus, one can easily see that PRP permits the body to heal faster and more efficiently.
PRP is used routinely by Doctors Nail and Dombrowski in bone grafting for dental implants. This includes grafts of solid blocks of bone, sinus floor graft procedures, tooth socket grafts, ridge augmentation procedures, closure of cleft palate defects, and repair of bone defects created by the removal of teeth or cysts. It can also be used to repair of fistulas (openings) between the sinus cavity and the mouth as well.
Safety: PRP is a by-product of the patient’s own blood, therefore, disease transmission is not an issue.
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.
Faster healing: The supersaturation of the wound with PRP, and thus growth factors, produces an increase of tissue synthesis and thus faster tissue regeneration.
Cost effectiveness: Since PRP can be produced with as little as 1-2 ounces of the patient’s blood in the doctor’s office, the patient does not need to incur the expense of the harvesting procedure in a hospital or at a blood bank.
Ease of use: PRP is easy to handle and actually facilitates the application of bone substitute materials and bone grafting products by making them more gel-like.
Is PRP safe? Yes. During the outpatient surgical procedure, a small amount of your own blood is drawn out via an IV. This blood is then placed in the PRP centrifuge machine and spun down. In less than 30 minutes, the PRP is prepared and ready to use.
Should PRP be used in all bone-grafting cases? Not always. In some cases, there is no need for PRP. However, in the majority of cases, application of PRP to the graft will increase the final amount of bone present in addition to making the wound heal faster and more efficiently.
Will my insurance cover the costs? Unfortunately not. The cost of the PRP application is paid by the patient.
Can PRP be used alone to stimulate bone formation? No. PRP must be mixed with either the patient’s own bone, a bone substitute material such as demineralized freeze-dried bone, or a synthetic bone product such as Bio-Oss.
Are there any possible side-effects to PRP? Very few. Obviously, patients with bleeding disorders or hematologic diseases do not qualify for this in-office procedure. Check with your surgeon and/or primary care physician to determine if PRP is right for you.
