Background: The present study is aimed to compare the osteoblastic activity in periodontally accelerated osteogenic orthodontics (PAOO) with and without the platelet-rich fibrin (PRF) membrane by evaluating the gingival crevicular fluid (GCF), alkaline phosphate (ALP) levels and also to explore the efficiency of PRF membrane in terms of healing.
Methods: A split-mouth randomized controlled trial, which comprised 16 sites, was randomly treated with PAOO + PRF membrane and PAOO alone. The primary outcome was to analyze the GCF ALP levels at baseline, 3rd, week, 5th week (2 weeks after surgery, 1 h before and after activation), 7th week (4 weeks after surgery), and 9th week (6 weeks after surgery). The clinical parameters (plaque index [PI], gingival index [GI], bleeding index [BI]) were assessed at baseline, 3rd week, 15th week, and 27th week. Healing index was recorded at 4th week (1 week after surgery), 5th week (2 weeks after surgery), and 7th week (4 weeks after surgery).
Results: There was a statistically significant increase in GCF ALP levels (p < 0.05) in the test site (PAOO with PRF membrane) 2 weeks post-surgically compared to the control site. Improvement in the clinical measures (PI, GI, BI) was statistically significant at all time intervals. Adjunctive use of PRF resulted in statistically significant early healing in the first postoperative week compared to the control site (p < 0.05).
Conclusions: Within the limitations of this split-mouth study, PRF membrane showed significant osteoblastic activity in the 5th week (2 weeks after PAOO) with the increased GCF ALP levels and accelerated healing in the 1st week after PAOO. They also maintained post-orthodontic stability until 18 months.
Keywords: Alkaline phosphatase; Gingival crevicular fluid; Healing; Periodontally accelerated osteogenic orthodontics; Platelet-rich fibrin.
© 2021 Director General, Armed Forces Medical Services. Published by Elsevier, a division of RELX India Pvt. Ltd.