E-PRF vs Collagen Membranes in Ridge Preservation

Dental implants are often considered the gold standard to replace missing teeth. Having success with dental implants depends on the hard tissue and soft tissue remaining after tooth extractions. The first step to successful dental implant placement begins with proper socket grafting which includes placing a bone graft and membrane among other biomaterials such as platelet-rich fibrin (PRF) to prevent the collapse of the ridge that occurs after a dental extraction. While platelet-rich fibrin is commonly utilized for ridge preservation, it is often used in conjunction with a collagen membrane due to the fact that it has a short resorption time lasting roughly 2 weeks. However, recently, it was discovered that by heating the plasma layer and denaturing the albumin, the resorption properties of PRF could be extended from 2 weeks to 4-6 months. This extended platelet-rich fibrin (e-PRF) membrane is a promising replacement to collagen membranes in various surgeries. The investigators previously demonstrated that e-PRF is a safe and feasible alternative to conventional membranes with 4 different iterations of applying the novel e-PRF membrane. However, there still lacks a comparative study to traditional collagen membranes and between the 4 different iterations. Four different techniques utilizing e-PRF membranes for ridge augmentation will be performed with a collagen membrane as a control group. These techniques include 1) e-PRF as a sole barrier membrane, 2) layering a solid-PRF membrane over the e-PRF membrane, 3) fabricating e-PRF intra-orally in gel form as a Bio-Filler, and 4) Fabricating the e-PRF membrane intra-orally under a solid-PRF membrane.