1. OZONE
A 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

2. 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?

3. Ozone
Chemistry Textbook

4. Ozone Safety

5. Ozone in SMOG
lungs 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

6. 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

7. • 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

8. • 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

9. 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”.

10. RESEARCH: Risks and Benefits

11. PUBMED search
‘ozone in medicine and dentistry’

13. Dentistry and Maxillofacial Surgery

14. Review of Literature

15. Ozonated Oils – Patent Claims

16. Ozone and Ozonated Oils for Skin

17. Older 1999 Article on the
‘Future of Ozone Therapy’

18. Cellular REDOX

19. Ozone and Diabetes

20. OZONE IN DENTISTRY
Typical use in dental treatment is
focused on antimicrobial action

21. 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

22. OTHER USES OF OZONE
that may result in increased numbers of
complaints against practitioners
Injection of gas directly into tissues such as:
Gums
tongue
head and neck muscle trigger points
or directly into the TMJ
or as insufflations to non-dental areas (ears, etc)
or transdermal application (very low risk) such as
ozone sauna

23. 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

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

25. 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

26. SUMMARY
Lack 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