OZONEA Brief History of

Medical Ozone Therapy and Current Practice:A Risk Assessment

Prepared and Presented by Jessica Saepoff DDS

For the Washington State Dental Quality Assurance Commission Meeting 6-7-13

Pertinent information for boards and commissions

• What is ozone?• When was ozone first used in medicine?• Is there research on the risks and benefits?

• How is it used in dentistry?• What kind of training are dentists getting?

Ozone Chemistry Textbook

Ozone Safety

Ozone in SMOGlungs and eyes are vulnerable to injury from any ozone gas

due to a lack of antioxidants in those particular cell membranes which our other cells have in sufficient quantities to prevent injury

Ozone in Medicine

• 1840 Ozone was first discovered and named by German scientist C. F. Schonbein

• 1857 First ozone generators by Werner von Siemens in Germany

• 1870 Purification of blood by ozone in test tubes by Dr. C. Lender of Germany

• 1880 First American therapeutic use of ozone was by Dr. John H. Kellogg in ozone steam saunas at the Battle Creek Sanitarium

• 1896 Nicola Tesla patented his first ozone generator and formed the Tesla Ozone Co.

• Tesla sold ozone machines and ozonated olive oil to doctors for medical use

• 1902 Dr. Charles Linder, MD, of Spokane, WA injected ozone as part of his standard medical practice

• 1904 The Medical uses of ozonated water ‘Hydrozone’ and ozonated olive oil ‘Glycozone’ by Charles Marchand, a New York chemist, 19th edition is in the Library of Congress with the US Surgeon General’s stamp of approval on it

• 1914-1918 during WWI ozone was used to treat wounds, trench foot, gangrene and the effects of poison gas

• 1920’s Tesla’s cold plasma design was used in Canada to generate ozone for air purification

• 1920’s - 40’s saw increased world wide practice of ozone therapies and many medical books and texts were published

Some online historical accounts include reports that during the 1940’s the FDA began seizing ozone generators

• Ozone has continued to be used in the practice of medicine through the present, although much of the research is performed outside of the US

• 1961 The Encyclopedia of Chemical Technology stated: “During the 80 year history of the large scale usage of ozone, there has never been a human death attributed to it”.

RESEARCH: Risks and Benefits

PUBMED search‘ozone in medicine and dentistry’

Dentistry and Maxillofacial Surgery

Review of Literature

Ozonated Oils – Patent Claims

Ozone and Ozonated Oils for Skin

Older 1999 Article on the ‘Future of Ozone Therapy’

Cellular REDOX

Ozone and Diabetes

OZONE IN DENTISTRY

Typical use in dental treatment is focused on antimicrobial action

Common Uses for Ozone(LOW RISK)

• Periodontics and Hygiene -mouth rinse, ozonated water for cavitron and irrigation of pockets, ozone gas for insufflation of pockets, custom trays for ‘microbaric’ therapy of all colonized areas of the mouth

• Endodontics -insufflation of infected teeth, ozonated irrigation solution, ozonated oil on files

• Restorative and prosthodontics -ozonated water, gas applied to decayed surfaces to disinfect prior to bonding

• Disinfection of water lines• Ultrasonic instrument cleaner

OTHER USES OF OZONE that may result in increased numbers of

complaints against practitioners

Injection of gas directly into tissues such as:Gumstongue head and neck muscle trigger points

or directly into the TMJor as insufflations to non-dental areas (ears, etc)or transdermal application (very low risk) such as ozone sauna

Popular Ozone Courses

• There are very few training courses available to dentists• One of them confers a ‘certification’ accepted by one or

two organizations which may confuse the public if it looks like a specialty credential

• If used for the public good, this ‘certification’ process could help standardize safe and reasonable treatment protocols

• The most popular course is popular primarily because it is the only one ‘approved’ by a prominent Ozone organization and they were one of the first to offer any sort of formal training at all

ACIMD – sponsoring ozone courses for dentists with a ‘naturopathic’ slant

Questionable standardization and quality control for the training of dentists to use ozone in practice

The AAOT approves the ACIMD course to ‘certify’ dentists

The ACIMD faculty (members of the board of the AAOT) offer a 2 day ‘certification’ course approved by the AAOT as well as a 10 day NMD degree which turns dentists into ‘naturopathic physicians’ giving them the ‘credential’ to treat systemic diseases with everything including ozone

SUMMARYLack of standardization of training for dentists (and

physicians) in the use of ozone therapy in practice is to be expected due to the apparent avoidance of ozone therapy

by mainstream allopathic practitioners

• The possible risk to the public may be increased by dentists who practice as physicians by expanding their scope of practice after receiving new credentials, even if licensed

• HOWEVER ozone does appear to be an extremely safe treatment modality which makes it less likely that boards and commissions will see many serious complaints from the public about treatments