The medical professionals of Tampa’s Health + Glow are always interested in offering their primary care and medical spa patients emerging innovative, natural treatments when proven safe and effective. Our cutting-edge natural therapies include platelet-rich fibrin treatment, which uses rejuvenating properties within a patient’s blood for aesthetic and primary care purposes.

Health + Glow primarily uses platelet-rich fibrin (PRF) treatment in its medical spa to revitalize skin for anti-aging purposes. Given emerging data on its therapeutic benefits, Health + Glow lead physician Dr. Swapna M. Kallikadan also uses it to help treat some injuries experienced by her primary care patients. Let’s take a closer look at PRF so that you’ll better understand the treatment if it is offered to you.

What is Platelet-Rich Fibrin Treatment?

PRF treatment is a holistic therapy that uses concentrated platelets and fibrin isolated from the patient’s blood to stimulate tissue regeneration wherever it’s injected back into the patient. Like platelet rich plasma therapy (PRP), PRF is emerging as a more effective therapy because the fibrin attracts and confines growth factors, white blood cells, and nutrients to the injection site. Researchers believe this promotes longer-lasting elastin and collagen production than PRP offers.

The treatment is easy, minimally invasive, and requires no downtime. Health + Glow’s PRF treatment in Tampa consists of:

• Withdrawing blood from the arm.
• Placing the blood in a centrifuge for three to 10 minutes to separate its components.
• Injecting or topically applying the PRF to the treatment site.

Aesthetic Benefits of PRF

Ongoing research continues to expand the efficacy of using PRF for anti-aging skin rejuvenation. Its ability to spur collagen and elastin production and enhance the skin’s hyaluronic acid retention helps alleviate numerous signs of aging. The primary aesthetic improvements offered by PRF treatment include:

• Smooth crepey skin
• Enhance skin texture and firmness
• Even out skin tone
• Decrease acne scarring
• Ease fine the appearance of wrinkles and lines
• Reduce under-eye hollows and dark circles

Some medical practices are also using PRF to treat hair loss caused by alopecia. Initial studies on its efficacy are promising, though researchers have yet to determine the most effective centrifugation protocols.

PRF Treatment’s Therapeutic Benefits

While researchers continue to study how PRF stimulates tissue regeneration and enhances the speed and effectiveness of injury healing, existing data suggests that the treatment is safe and effective at treating some injuries. A review of PRF studies identified “widely accepted benefits” of using PRF” to treat the following injuries and procedures:

• Orthopedic and Sports Injuries—PRF’s concentration of growth factors at injury sites definitively enhances muscle repair and regeneration at the cellular level. In one study on treating muscle strain injuries, those treated with PRF recovered 6.7 days faster than those treated with anti-inflammatory treatments.
• Rotator Cuff Repair—while a difficult injury to treat surgically, studies have shown that PRF treatment used with arthroscopic surgery enhances the likelihood of full recovery. However, healing rates have not been as successful when used for severe rotator cuff tears, and researchers have called for further studies to determine the discrepancies in outcomes.
• Other Sports-Related Injuries—PRF treatment has proven successful in enhancing functional improvement recovery when used with Achilles tendon and ACL surgeries. Additionally, a controlled study that tracked the recovery of elite-level athletes treated for ankle sprains determined that PRF treatment shortened treatment times and reduced long-term pain. Similar results were reported in athletes treated with PRF for patellar tendinopathy, partial ulnar collateral ligament tears, meniscal lesions, and elbow ulnar collateral ligament issues.
• Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery—PRF is widely accepted as an effective adjunct treatment for these procedures. When used with bone grafting, PRF enhances bone regeneration and reduces healing times. PRF is also proven effective at relieving pain and post-operative swelling caused by tooth extractions.

Preparing for PRF Treatment

If you’re planning to undergo PRF treatment for aesthetic or therapeutic purposes, there are several things you should do to prepare for the procedure. First, consult a healthcare practitioner experienced with PRF and whatever condition is being treated. During this consultation, your healthcare provider will assess your health profile to ensure the treatment is right for you. Pregnancy, nursing, hematological disorders, autoimmune disorder flareups, and active or recent infections preclude a patient from PRF treatment.

Your doctor should also provide you with pre-treatment instructions designed to optimize PRF treatment effectiveness. These instructions vary depending on the purpose of the PRF treatment.

PRF treatment results and post-treatment issues also vary depending on the treatment purpose. When used for aesthetic purposes, PRF treatment typically provides noticeable results within a few weeks. Therapeutic PRF treatment results tend to be more subtle as they relate to the overall healing process. Possible post-treatment issues include minor, short-term bruising, swelling, and soreness at injection sites. When used aesthetically in the under-eye area, it can cause swelling for up to five days.

Learn More About PRF Treatment at Tampa’s Health + Glow

Health + Glow is pleased to offer this novel aesthetic and therapeutic treatment to its Tampa-area patients. To learn more about platelet-rich fibrin treatment in Tampa, schedule an appointment with Health + Glow today.