Clinical Reversal of Pit and Fissure Caries After Using Using Ozone

Ozone has been shown to clinically reverse primary root carious lesions and early occlusal pit and fissure caries. This study aimed to assess the use of Ozone to manage pit and fissure caries in a general dental practice. Objectives:This study assessed the effect of a novel ozone delivery system¹ on primary pit and fissure carious lesions over a 1 month period. Methods:22 patients in a general dental practice were entered with 78 carious lesions. Each carious lesion had been deemed to require drilling and filling and had a DIAGNOdent2 reading between 20 and 42 at baseline. After randomisation, lesions were assigned to either receiving no treatment or ozone treatment with each subject having at least one control lesion. Ozone was applied to each test lesion for 30 seconds. After 1 month, patients were recalled and clinically re-assessed for lesion severity. The DIAGNOdent² was again employed to objectively quantify the carious lesions. Results:After 1 month, all 22 patients, reattended for re-evaluation. There were no observed adverse events. 74.4% of the ozone-treated primary pit and fissure carious lesions had clinically reversed based on the clinical measurement of lesion severity. 100% of the Ozone-treated lesions either reversed or remained stable clinically (P<0.001). 59% of the ozone-treated primary pit and fissure carious lesions had reversed based on the DIAGNOdent readings (P<0.05) whilst 82% of the control carious lesions, which had not received any ozone treatment, showed a significant increase in progression of severity, based on the DIAGNOdent readings (P<0.05). Control lesions did not significantly change clinically. Conclusions:This treatment regime using ozone may be considered to be an effective alternative to conventional "drilling and filling" for primary occlusal fissure carious lesions in general dental practice. ¹HealOzone unit, CurOzone USA. ²DIAGNOdent, KaVo, Germany