Here’s an incredible new way to regrow lost bone
If you’ve been living with missing teeth for a while, it’s likely that your jaw bone will have deteriorated over time. For many people, this means that you won’t be able to have dental implants placed without first rejuvenating or regrowing sufficient jaw bone.
Normally, this would mean adding around 3 to 12 months to your dental implant treatment time as we graft bone from elsewhere in your body or use synthetic bone. However, we can now accelerate this process by using your body’s natural healing properties.
It’s possible thanks to new technology we’ve introduced at Wickham Terrace Dental, called advanced platelet-rich fibrin (A-PRF) placement.
How we harness your body’s natural healing ability
Platelets are blood cells which make your blood clot, and help to stop bleeding when you’re injured. They also play a crucial role in healing wounds.
Simply put, with A-PRF we make a platelet concentrate from your own blood, containing platelets and growth factors but no artificial biochemical modifications. What does that mean? It means that we can employ your body’s own healing ability and put it to use just when we need it to make a difference to your bone growth, healing, or recovery.
For example, Dr Teakle can collect your blood and then spin it at high speed in our centrifuge right here at Wickham Terrace Dental in Brisbane. This creates a platelet-rich fibrin clot which we can turn into a membrane and place on your jaw bone defect to help it regenerate – either before or at the same time as your dental implant procedure.
The platelet concentrate then assists both your soft and hard tissue to heal, making the most of your body’s healing potential to quickly and efficiently repair and grow your jaw bone. This process makes regrowing bone for dental implants far more predictable and rapid.
Dr Teakle has been so impressed with the A-PRF process that he wrote a review of our equipment for industry magazine Bite. To read a more technical take on A-PRF, click here.
How we use A-PRF with implant dentistry
A-PRF is already producing exciting results for our dental implant patients at Wickham Terrace Dental. With the help of A-PRF, we’ve seen people make amazing healing strides in as little as a week after having major oral surgery. And rapid healing isn’t the only benefit.
“One thing I’m very impressed with about A-PRF is the quality of the bone it produces,” Dr Andrew Teakle said. “Because it works seamlessly with your body’s healing mechanisms, it produces the most beautiful hard bone that feels very natural to work with, by comparison to synthetic bone.”
That’s not to say that synthetic bone doesn’t have a part to play in regrowing lost jaw bone for dental implants. In fact, Dr Teakle often combines the two approaches, using synthetic bone as the ‘scaffold’ within which A-PRF can work to regenerate your natural bone.
However, if you have an allergic or negative reaction to synthetic bone material, advanced platelet-rich fibrin is now an excellent alternative. “A-PRF is the ‘gold standard’ in regrowing jaw bone ready for dental implants,” Andrew said.
Talk to us about how A-PRF can help your dental implant treatment
If you’ve been worried that you don’t have enough jaw bone to hold dental implants, A-PRF could be the answer you’re looking for. Make an appointment today to speak with Dr Teakle about advanced platelet-rich fibrin placement.
To find out more about A-PRF and how it could help you regenerate lost jaw bone, get in touch using the contact form here or call us on 3831 3031 today.