When Perio Health Professionals hosts a continuing education event, attendees don’t just earn credit hours, they gain direct access to the people who are writing the textbooks.
On the evening of May 7, 2026, that access came in the form of Dr. Samuel Lynch, DMSc, DMD, one of the world’s foremost authorities on growth factors and a true pioneer of regenerative medicine. Gathered at Ouisie’s Table in Houston, dental and aesthetic providers spent the evening learning directly from the scientist who helped bring platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF) from the laboratory to more than five million patients worldwide.
A Story That Begins in the Body
Dr. Lynch opened with a truth that reframes how providers think about healing.
“PDGF is in all of our bodies,” he explained. “It’s actually in the bodies of every mammal on Earth. PDGF is considered to be the body’s natural wound-healing stimulator.”
The elegance of the science is in its origin. Platelet-derived growth factor, as the name implies, comes from platelets, the body’s own first responders. As Dr. Lynch put it – anytime there is an injury, whether a cut in the skin, a broken bone, or a torn tendon, it is the platelets doing the work.
“It’s the platelets that is God’s amazing drug delivery system,” he said. “Sophisticated, more complex than any drug delivery system we certainly have ever invented.”
The therapeutic promise of pure PDGF, then, isn’t about overriding the body. It’s about working with it. “Pure PDGF is just augmenting or enhancing the healing effect and the healing process that’s already naturally going on in your body.”
From Discovery to Four FDA Approvals
Few presenters can speak about a technology from its very origin. Dr. Lynch can.
“I was very fortunate to be in the lab that discovered PDGF,” he shared. “We had a sense that there might be something in that blood clot, in those platelets, that would stimulate healing. Then we started testing it and saw that indeed, it does stimulate healing throughout the body. It helped millions of patients around the world.”
That foundational discovery launched a career spanning more than 250 publications and patents, hundreds of lectures across over 25 countries, and the development of four FDA-approved regenerative products – including GEM 21S for periodontal and oral surgery tissue regeneration, Augment Bone Graft, and most recently Ariessence pure PDGF+ for aesthetic medicine.
Recombinant pure PDGF (rhPDGF-BB) remains the only pure, off-the-shelf growth factor to receive FDA approval across multiple soft tissue and bone regeneration applications.
Yet for all the milestones, Dr. Lynch returned again and again to a posture of humility.
“All I did was discover what God and nature had already made,” he said, “and just found a way to copy what nature has already designed.”
He spoke, too, about what has stayed with him most – not the patents or the products, but the people. “The stories that patients have spontaneously come up and shared with me are so special and are ones that I will remember forever.”
A Fast-Growing Frontier in Aesthetics
While PDGF has long been established in periodontal, maxillofacial, and orthopedic applications, Dr. Lynch also addressed its rapidly expanding role in facial aesthetic medicine, now the fastest-growing regenerative technology in the field, embraced by dermatologists, plastic surgeons, and med spa providers alike.
For attendees applying the technology in aesthetic practice, the evening offered both clinical insight and reassurance. Jamie Schulze, FNP, an aesthetic injector at SkinLab in The Woodlands, summed up exactly why these events matter.
“I came to this PDGF lecture with Dr. Sam Lynch really to learn more about PDGF, how it is reconstituted, what it’s actually made of, the safety factors,” she said. “All of that is important as I’m using it in my injectable career.”
A second provider in attendance, Dr. Veronica Alaniz, echoed that the timing felt especially relevant. “I wanted to hear more about how I could protect myself with everything that’s been going on in the industry and all of the hot topics that you hear about it.”
Their takeaways were unequivocal. “Big fans of it,” Dr. Alaniz said. “We’ve seen wonderful, beautiful results.” Schulze pointed to the depth of evidence behind the technology: “Millions and millions of dollars that have gone into the research and studies. It’s a highly studied product.”
An Environment Where Every Question Is Welcome
Perhaps the most telling endorsement of the evening had nothing to do with the molecule itself, and everything to do with the experience Perio Health created.
“I would recommend a Perio Health CE to my colleagues, because the environment was welcoming, and they did answer any question that I had,” Dr. Alaniz noted. “Where you felt like everyone was open, and any question was welcome.”
That sentiment reflects exactly what Perio Health Professionals sets out to do with its continuing education series: create a space where providers can learn from the best minds in the field, ask hard questions, and leave better equipped to serve their patients.
As Schulze reminded the room, growth is a continuous pursuit. “Always learning and growing. The only way to do that is to come to CEs and lectures like this.”
Leading the Way Forward
The evening with Dr. Lynch was more than a lecture, it was a window into the past, present, and future of regenerative medicine, delivered by the person who helped shape all three. Hosting an authority of Dr. Lynch’s caliber is part of a larger commitment – to remain at the leading edge of technology and to bring that knowledge directly to the providers and patients who benefit from it.
That commitment doesn’t stop at the lectern. Perio Health offers the very technology Dr. Lynch pioneered, Ariessence pure PDGF+, as part of its approach to skin rejuvenation and regenerative care. As a pharmaceutical-grade formulation of PDGF-BB combined with hyaluronic acid, Ariessence is the first aesthetic product to use an FDA-approved growth factor, offering a standardized, sterile, on-label alternative to traditional blood-derived PRP and PRF treatments.
Because it requires no blood draw and contains no human cell components, it removes the day-to-day variability and cross-contamination concerns that can accompany autologous methods.
In practice, Ariessence pure PDGF+ is applied as a potent post-procedural solution following treatments such as microneedling, RF microneedling, laser skin resurfacing, and peels, taking advantage of the body’s natural healing response to support collagen remodeling, improved elasticity, and healthier-looking skin texture.
It is this kind of integration, pairing leading-edge science with thoughtful clinical application, that defines how Perio Health delivers on the promise behind Dr. Lynch’s work.
When you partner with Perio Health, you’re not just keeping pace with advances in periodontics and regenerative care. You’re learning from the people who are creating them.
Perio Health Professionals continues to host continuing education events featuring the leading voices in regenerative and periodontal medicine. To learn more about upcoming events or to explore how these advancements can benefit your practice and patients, visit periohealth.com.