Novel surgery for jaw reconstruction

A unique technique called 'Platelet Rich Fibrin' (PRF) was performed by doctors on Lokesh at the Rajarajeshwari Dental College and Hospital where his entire fractured jaw was successfully reconstructed by replacing missing bones from the patient's jaw bones.

Dr Anjan Shah, Head of Department of Implantology at the Hospital who conducted the procedure said that this was the first time the PRF procedure was conducted on any patient in Bangalore.  He said that the technique was invented by Dr Joseph Choukroun, a French doctor in 2009.

Explaining the surgery, Dr Shah said normally if a patient looses teeth in a accident, a ‘bridge’ is constructed using metal screws extracting bones either from the hip or ribs.  
In Lokesh’s case, bones were not extracted from any part of the body, but were augmented to allow the bone grow on its own.

“The PRF technique took nearly three hours. The bones will grow in three months which paves way for us to implant metal screws to fix a ‘bridge’ later,” said Dr Shah.

Dr Shah added that though the procedure is not expensive, the implants costs around Rs 25,000 as they are all imported.