Cork City Dentist Speaks on Ozone Use In Dentistry and Medicine.
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What is Ozone?
Ozone is energized Oxygen, Oxygen
exists in the molecular form O2 as two atoms of Oxygen. Ozone occurs in nature after a lightning storm as O3 molecular form, 3 atoms of Oxygen.
It is very reactive and as a gas breaks down quickly into Oxygen.
You can often notice a clean sweet smell after a storm and that’s Ozone.
Why Use Ozone?
Ozone forms part of our Preventive approach to dental disease since 2002. We were the first Irish Dental Practice to incorporate the Healozone machine. This was used to treat dental decay, cold sores and tooth sensitivity. It produced Ozone gas from air at 4.5 mcg/ml and was delivered only when a vacuum was created which made it tricky to use in some areas of the mouth.
Today Dr Seward is the first dentist outside the USA to use a new “Enaly” ozone generator. He is the first member of the North American Pathfinder Ozone group from outside of the US.
This machine differs from the healozone in that a vacuum isn’t needed and the strength generated is 115 mcg/ml almost 26 times that of the Healozone. We can do this as we now use Medical Oxygen instead of Air to generate ozone, this also cuts the production of Nitrogen compounds that allows us use the Ozone in much more numerous applications with improved results.
What can we treat?
We now daily ozonate distilled water to use in our dental units, this results in sterile biofilm free waterlines without using potentially hazardous chemicals.
We also use this Ozonated water in Root Canal Treatments, Periodontal disease treatment and surgical procedures requiring sterile conditions.
We use Ozone gas to sterilise cavities prior to restoring the teeth.
In many cases if we catch a lesion early enough we can avoid totally the need for restoring the tooth where we can encourage the tooth to harden or remineralise.
We use it to treat Periodontal disease in the Gas, Ozonated Water and Ozonated Oils to arrest the disease.
Root Canal treatments also have Gas, Water and Oil applications to sterilise the canals before filling and restoring the tooth.
Mouth Ulcers, Cold Sores, Tooth Hypersensitivity, Wisdom Tooth Infection and dry socket infection are also treated.
How does Ozone Work?
As one of the most Powerful Oxidants known to man, Ozone kills all bacteria, viruses, fungi and even Prions causing CJD disease that aren’t killed by Autoclaving.
It is used worldwide in treating Public Water Supplies to make them safe for drinking as well as in the bottled water industry.
It’s method of action is breaking down the cell walls of these microorganisms which means they can never build up resistance like they do against antibiotics.
Aside from this they have biochemical and physiological effects including increasing blood flow, enhancing the imune response and accelerating healing.
Has Ozone side effects?
Ozone gas is an irritant to eye and lung tissue. If you allow eye contact you get the effect of cutting onions, streaming eyes. Similarly inhaling the gas brings on a coughing reaction. Both resolve with time and due to the very low flow rates and dental suction units used in practice are extremely rare.
In over 5.6 million Ozone treatments in Germany only 40 minor reactions were noted none requiring hospitalisation or with any sequelae, this can be contrasted to 140,000 hospital deaths in the USA in 2007 attributed to antibiotic therapy.
Is Ozone a Magic Bullet?
No.
However it is a tool with such potential in both Medicine and Dentistry that I believe it will Radically change the way we practice both within my lifetime.
Using Ozone as part of a minimally invasive dental philosophy, as we have here at Corkdental.com, I believe we can drastically reduce the needless amputation of tooth tissue, create healthy mouths and reduce the many needless dental procedures. Together with patients we can change the way we practice dentistry and lead patients to hold onto their teeth for life reducing the stress and trauma of dental visits and cost and time involved.
Ultimately would You like your children treated the way You used to be treated?
What is the Cost of Ozone?
As I explained in the last section on it’s own it’s not a magic bullet. It’s not as expensive as filling or extracting a tooth and certainly nowhere like the cost of an Implant.
We need to carry out a thorough diagnosis to determine the level of dental disease, work out a programme to arrest this an then keep that healthy for life. This can involve saliva testing, dietary investigation and advice and a willingness on the patient’s part to change dangerous habits and adopt the advice we tailor for each individual, one size doesn’t always fit all.
The ongoing costs can be very minimal for a healthy mouth whereas a filling is setting a tooth up to fail with all the consequent trauma and cost involved.
Uses in Medicine?
The uses in Medicine are even more exciting as in dentistry.
Typically it’s being used over Europe, South America and especially Cuba in treating Infections of all kinds. Ulcerated Lesions of limbs are notoriously difficult to treat and Often result in amputation of a limb. Professor Domb who I studied under in Los Angeles has used Ozone in Haiti after the Earthquake to save many limbs that were planned for amputation. Burns treatment is another area, nail infections etc.,
There has been a huge interest in dermatological use where skin has been rejuvenated using Ozonated soaps, Oils and injection of low dose Ozone gas into the skin. Much better results have been achieved than Botox which to my mind needs repeating and is derived from a toxin.