Effects of platelet-rich fibrin in the surgical extraction of mandibular third molar: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Abstract

Background: Platelet-rich fibrin (PRF) has a wide variety of applications in the field of oral surgery due to its biological potential to accelerate the wound-healing process and tissue regeneration. Aim: The objective of this review was to find out whether the role of PRF had been reported to be efficient in the surgical extraction of mandibular third molar (M3). Methods: An electronic search of the English-language literature in the PubMed (Medline) database was performed for the period from January 2015 to September 2021. Only randomized controlled trials (RCTs) comparing the impact of PRF application were included in this review. According to the Cochrane Collaboration's standards, the reviewer assessed the risk of bias. Review Manager (version 5.4) Windows software was used for the meta-analysis. Results: A total of 39 papers were found in the computerized search, with 13 RCTs meeting the qualitative analysis requirements and 10 trials included in the meta-analysis. The results of a meta-analysis for M3 surgery showed that PRF reduces the incidence of alveolar osteitis (AO) (P = 0.005) and pain on the first (P = 0.05), third (P = 0.002), fourth (P = 0.01), and seventh (P = 0.0003) postoperative days. The meta-analysis also revealed that there was no substantial improvement (P = 0.44) in soft tissue healing with the application of PRF following M3 surgery. Conclusions: The application of PRF after M3 extraction decreased the incidence of AO and postextraction pain.

Keywords

• alveolar osteitis
• extraction
• fibrin
• mandibular third molar
• platelet-rich fibrin.