Adjunctive Use of Platelet Concentrates for Hard- and Soft-Tissue Grafting

During healing after injury, platelets are natural reservoirs of growth factors and cytokines that play a critical role in the formation, maturation, and repair of soft and hard tissues. Platelet concentrates (PCs) have long been used to improve such healing in multiple applications throughout medicine and dentistry. Platelet-rich plasma and platelet-rich fibrin are autologous PCs derived from patients' blood. Because of the readily available source of blood after a simple venipuncture and the high level of patient acceptance of autologous materials, the use of autologous PCs for dental and oral surgical procedures is increasing in practice. Many indications for their use in dental procedures have been described, including hard- and soft-tissue regeneration. This article reviews the properties of currently available autologous platelet concentrates used in dentistry and identifies clinical applications for their adjunctive use to improve regeneration of oral tissues.