Phlebotomy and PRP at Pi Dental Center

Pi Dental Center Staff Hone Phlebotomy Skills for PRP Procedure with Patients
Pi Dental Center’s clinical staff recently took part in a Phlebotomy training program to perfect their skill in drawing blood, which they do for the Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP) procedure. PRP accelerates healing and enhances bone growth, which in turn stimulates osseointegration of dental implants. Read blog to learn about PRP at Pi Dental Center.

Phlebotomy

Phlebotomists are trained to draw blood from patients for clinical or medical testing, transfusions, donations, or research.  Pi Dental Center’s clinical department participated in a course given by an approved provider of the American Society for Clinical Laboratory Science. This phlebotomy course consisted of an online tutorial followed by small-group training with a certified instructor in our office. The online portion included lessons and quizzes. The hands-on course included placement of the tourniquet, proper techniques for finding a vein and inserting the needle, patient safety and comfort. Participants even practiced drawing blood on one another.

Pi Dental Assistant, Amy Gambone, felt that the course was quite valuable, stating, “Taking the phlebotomy course helped me tremendously. Safety and making the patient feel confident that they’re in good hands are essential. I feel more confident doing a blood-draw.”

Clinical Director, Martha Mendez discussed the phlebotomy course, “I learned the appropriate technique to draw blood, how to prioritize veins and most importantly, safety.  This course will improve our safety protocol for drawing blood and also ensure that our patients’ experience at Pi is as painless as possible.”

PRP

During the PRP procedure, a small amount of blood is drawn in preparation for dental implant treatment. 

PRP is a by-product of blood that is rich in platelets. Platelets are irregularly-shaped, colorless bodies that are present in blood. Their sticky surface lets them, along with other substances, form clots to stop bleeding. Platelets contain growth factors (GFs), which serve as effective inducers of normal tissue repair.

PRP allows the body to take advantage of the normal healing pathways at a highly accelerated rate. During the healing process, the body rushes many cells, including platelets, to the wound to initiate the healing process. Platelets perform many functions; one of which is the release of GFs into the wound. These GFs function to aid the body in repairing itself by stimulating mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) to regenerate new tissue. The more GFs sequestered into the wound, the more MSCs are stimulated to produce new host tissue. Simply, PRP permits the body to heal faster and more efficiently.

An article in The International Journal of Periodontics and Restorative Dentistry detailed a study regarding use of Growth Factors in molar sites with bone defects.  It advocated the use of Growth Factors in immediate placement of implants at the time of tooth removal. This is because of the high degree of predictability for successful treatment, preservation of bone and soft tissue form, the reduced period that a patient must live without teeth and superior esthetic results.

Dr. Glenn Wolfinger states, “PRP is used to stimulate and accelerate the healing process in the Teeth in a Day® protocol.  We strongly believe that PRP is a critical component of the high success of this protocol.”

As stated in the Journal of Oral Implantology, “Integrating this technique into common practice provides important benefits for patients regarding esthetics, without the risk of infection or transmission of diseases.”

To learn more about PRP click here.

More about bone and healing:

• Definition of bone
• Bone remodeling
• Function of bone
• Parts of the bone
• Osteogenesis
• Bone healing
• Bone quality and quantity
• Tooth extraction and bone

To ask us about dental implant treatment, PRP, or to schedule an appointment:

Terminology:

Phlebotomy:   the practice of drawing blood

Osseointegration: The biological process by which living bone (osseo) fuses with the titanium dental implant to form a man-made tooth root.

---

Articles:

Immediate Postextraction Implant Placement Using Plasma Rich in Growth Factors Technology in Maxillary Premolar Region: A New Strategy for Soft Tissue Management. Oral Implantology, Vol. XXXIX, No. One, 2013.

Platelet-Derived Growth Factor – Mediated Guided Bone Regeneration in Immediate Implant Placement in Molar Sites with Buccal Bone Defects, The International Journal of Periodontics and Restorative Dentistry, Vol. 35, No. 6, 2015.