#14 The Ozone Revolution in Dentistry

Welcome to the Holistic Dentistry Podcast, the show that gives you the tips and tools to detoxify your mouth for a healthier body. Welcome, everybody, to today's show. I wanted to talk to you about the ozone revolution in dentistry. Even though ozone has been around since the 1900s, it was actually a Swiss dentist, Dr. Fisch, in the early 1900s, who introduced the concept of oxygen with ozone combined. And then we had other doctors who really introduced this treatment into the medical community. And there's so much scientific literature on ozone, and you might be surprised that not more dentists are using it. Why is that? Is really because ozone requires training and the purchasing of an ozone generator in dentistry. Why do I like to use ozone? And I really started using ozone back, I want to say, about 10 years ago, I walked into a physician's office that was a referral physician to me, and I wanted to see what he was doing. And all of a sudden, I see him grabbing a plastic syringe, filling it with ozone gas to inject it in somebody's knee. And I was shocked because I knew that gas shouldn't be injected. And he said, well, the reason why I injected in the knee is because knees are known to have microorganisms inside, and ozone is the only thing that's natural that I can inject and really clean up that biofilm inside the knee socket. And you might ask, how does bacteria even get in the knee? Well, it comes from the mouth. When your gums are bleeding again back to the mouth, it has an opportunity to actually enter your bloodstream and get to the knee. And now the only way to really clean it up from the knee, because it causes inflammation, arthritis, degenerative joint problems if it's sitting there and it creates inflammation. So ozone gas, and it really can be used not only in dentistry, but also in medicine. When we talk about the mouth, really, there is a sea of microorganisms that are normally living in the mouth where we're talking about trillions. And not just bacteria, we're talking about fungus, parasites, viruses that are living together in a biofilm or like a closely knitted blanket of these microorganisms called biofilm. Parasites, though, are also embedded in this biofilm. The biofilm layer can be pathogenic, meaning causing disease, or it can be beneficial with filled with probiotics, oftentimes due to our diet, you know, carbohydrates, processed foods, stress, smoking, poor oral hygiene. Our biofilm layer is not ideal. The way I use ozone in the dental practice is, is in the forms of water through our dental chairs. And we use it in our hygiene department to help to reduce this layer of biofilm. This oxidative burst, which is caused by the ozone inside the water, really helps to stress these organisms and have them die on contact, which is the important thing to know about ozone. Ozone is actually all natural. It is O3 instead of O2. And that atom of oxygen that is bound there, that's unstable, comes off the O3 molecule. And it helps to poke holes inside or on the membrane of these organisms and having them burst on contact. But, you know, the dental hygiene department is not the only department we use ozone in. We actually also use ozone when treating cavities. Why? Cavities are due to bacteria. It's also an infectious disease, and it's the number one infection disease. Disease in children. And is it safe to use ozone water in children? Absolutely. Ozone water helps to, again, clean the tooth decay or the caries that are eating up at the tooth prior to putting in a filling. So ozone in itself, as I mentioned, kills fungus, bacteria and parasites on contact. And when you compare it to something like bleach, which a lot of you are using, it is more potent than bleach. It is safer than bleach. And believe it or not, there's actually practitioners out there that will use bleach in the mouth. And some of you are like, what? Bleach in the mouth? Yes, and I'm totally against this. In our practice, we would never use bleach in the mouth, number one, because it's toxic, and secondly, it's very acidic. So if you're using bleach to rinse your mouth, even as a diluted solution of bleach, I highly encourage you to take a PH meter and measure that bleach solution and see tea. What kind of ph are you getting? If it's a really low ph and you're using it, it's like basically rinsing with acid. And that's going to overly sensitize your teeth. That's why I prefer ozone water. When we use ozone water, it actually affects the biofilm that carries the bacterial infection, but not actually affect your cells or your teeth with ozone in the dental office, the way we use it. And I actually have here a machine to show you. This is one of our many ozone generators that in our dental office. And this particular machine is actually hooked to a oxygen tank, and then it has a tube made out of silicone and a little cup. So let's say when we're treating cavities, for example, if you have here's a plastic model. Let's say you have a cavity on the surface. We can actually take this little cup. Ozone comes out right through the inside. And we actually can cup the tooth. Obviously this model is a lot larger than the human mouth. You can actually press it in, see, seal the tooth. And we can use a smaller tooth right here. And ozone gas will actually help to bathe that tooth surface, penetrate inside the little tubules of the tooth, and help to disinfect and detoxify from the bacteria that may be living in there. And you might be asking, was bacteria really getting down in the tubules? Yes. We have research to show that the little tubules actually hold bacteria in both teeth that are alive. And also root canal treated teeth. The sad part is that root canal treated teeth have 50 times more bacteria in their tubules than healthy teeth. So more important to use ozone gas in those particular kind of teeth. The other way we use ozone. And we always use ozone, by the way, with oxygen. So it's really like 99% oxygen and a small percentage of ozone. And why it's used this way because research shows that's all you need. You don't need to use pure ozone. Ozone can be toxic to the lungs. So we advise that it's controlled in a dental office. And this all comes with training. We actually use an ozone meter, it looks like this. And it really shows us if the ozone goes over the allotted limit in the atmosphere around in, in our office, that is. So we always make sure that we provide ozones that you don't inhale. And sometimes it can happen that during a dental cleaning, you might inhale some ozone gas. It will cause you to cough. And remember, it's not just ozone, it's mostly oxygen. And if you're having coughing, especially if you're asthmatic, I would advise that you let your doctor know about asthma and really load up on vitamin C prior to coming to the dental office. Asthma creates oxidative stress and ozone is an oxidant. So if you're actually going to inhale, it can cause you to cough. You got to recover, there's no permanent damage. But in order to help you, we recommend loading up with Anthem antioxidants. This is an ozone insufflator that we use for gum treatment. And the way we treat the gums, actually we start in the back and we run ozone gas around the pocket, deep under the pocket. We can go up to 10 or 12 millimeter all the way down into the pocket area. And of course, all the way Around. Why is this important? If somebody has gingival inflammation or periodontal disease, which actually affects the bone around the teeth, Ozone gas penetrates deep inside to disinfect. And this disinfection creates a good environment so your body can actually do the healing. I always say we are here to create the best environment in your mouth. So your body can actually do the healing. Another way that I actually love to use ozone gas in the dental office is via injection. I have patients that are sensitive to many different antibiotics. And they come in, let's say, with a gum abscess or a tooth abscess. Antibiotics, unfortunately, don't work very well. Sometimes they do, sometimes they don't. And they usually take a couple days for that abscess to deflate or to actually reach in there to clean things up. And the other problem is sometimes abscesses have many different microorganisms in there. They can have bacteria, but also fungus and parasites. And antibiotics do not work on fungus and parasites. Ozone does. So I take a needle with an injection, fill it up with ozone gas, and I actually let it bubble inside the abscess to really disinfect and sterilize and really kill all the microbiome that's developed in there. And typically we see immediate relief of the problem and really much faster healing. Sometimes I use the ozone injection in conjunctions with the antibiotics, depending on how bad the infection is. And it absolutely can be used together. Now, ozone works on the theory of hormesis, which is a biological phenomenon whereby a beneficial effect results from a controlled exposure to low dose of a toxic agent. So ozone in high doses is a high oxidant. But when we use this as a hormetic, or through hormesis, it has a effect on our immune system. So it doesn't just kill the microorganisms. But the second benefit of ozone is really that it primes our immune system to become alert and to really fight against infection and to actually start repair. One of my favorite books on ozone therapy is the Principle and Applications of ozone therapy by Dr. Frank Shallenberger. And he's considered the father of ozonotherapy here in the United States States. He is an MD and he uses ozone in many other different areas of the body. And I remember meeting him and hearing him lecture at the American Academy of Ozonotherapy. For those of you that are interested to learn more about ozone, I highly recommend this book and that particular meeting. Ozone works through peroxide. So what it actually does, as soon as we inject ozone inside the tissues, there's a cytokine stimulation. So cytokines is basically like a stimulation of the cell cells, of the immune system. There's also an increased delivery of oxygen to the cells because I was telling you we're using oxygen and ozone and that oxygenation is helpful for healing of the tissues. But also some of the pathogens don't survive in an oxygenated environment. The cells then take this oxygen and actually help them heal better and help them function better within the cell. We also see an increased nitric oxide production in the cell as well as a stimulation of detoxification. So some people that are actually having ozone therapy may have flu like symptoms. And this comes from the body's process of detoxification. And there's really nothing to worry about. And we always warn you about that depending on the amount of ozone that you are receiving. The other thing that ozone does, it really stimulates the antioxidant enzymes in the body and to basically start producing more antioxidants in order to clean up the oxidative stress. In studies by Dr. Bocchi, he has shown that ozone actually activates a gene called nrf2. And the reason why this gene is important is because NRF2 is a longevity gene. Endothelial cells treated with increasing doses of ozonated Serum at 20, 40 and 80 micrograms per ML actually have shown that the lower dose is sufficient. So we don't need to blast the cell with ozone. That's why we keep it in a regulated dose. And Dr. Bocci was actually practicing in Italy and he has published many, many studies on ozone scientific data. Also. Hydrogen peroxide is something that the body recognizes. Hydrogen peroxide is released by our macrophages. So what does that mean? Hydrogen peroxide is a negative oxidant species which helps to kill microorganisms. So our body recognizes that oxygen atom that actually comes off the molecule and it pokes holes inside the membranes. That's why it is not toxic inside our connective tissue. One of the questions we get a lot Can I be allergic to oxygen or ozone? No, you cannot be allergic to oxygen because oxygen is needed to to breathe. Ozone is just an energized form of oxygen and it's naturally formed by the sun and lightning in storms. Can you be allergic to oxygen or ozone? The answer is no, because it's impossible to be allergic to oxygen. We need it to survive. And ozone is just an energized form of oxygen and it's naturally formed in the environment by the sun and lightning storms. That's why you can see smell ozone without the ozone layer high in the atmosphere, like we couldn't exist. Ozone actually filters out the sun's harmful UV rays and in addition makes for that beautiful blue color in the sky. We learn to use whatever nature gives us to our benefit. And Nikola Tesla back in 1890s developed the first medical generator. And we're seeing a comeback right now of ozone treatments because antibiotics are not working that well. People are either too sensitive to different antibiotics or they've already tried all different antibiotics. And when that fails, ozone works. How do you find a biological dentist that is trained in oxygen ozone therapy? Visit the International Academy of Oral Medicine and Toxicology IAOMT and definitely give it a try. Especially if you have recurrent bleeding gums. That's actually not okay. We can treat that very predictably with ozone. If you have cavities, there's definitely ways we can help you through ozone use. Please make sure you check out the show notes for any links mentioned in the show. Do you have a question you'd like me to answer? Message me on Instagram. Doctorsandha. This is Dr. Sandha. And remember, your mouth is the gateway to your health. So take care of it in the most natural and best way possible.