What is Ozone therapy and why is it used? (Podcast)
Sherry: This is Sherry. And today we have Dr. Patel here. She has a holistic practice in downtown San Francisco. She is a Forbes bestselling author and a wellness expert. And today we’re gonna talk to her about what exactly is ozone therapy and how this helps our teeth and overall health. So Dr. Patel, what exactly is ozone therapy?
Dr. Patel: Hey, Sherry, thanks for having me. I love to talk about ozone. It is one of my favorite things. It’s my favorite tool in my toolbox I should have to say.
So ozone therapy is wonderful because ozone is oxygen. It means it’s O3 is the letter that’s there and on the periodic table. So O3 actually means extra oxygen and oxygen is a wonderful thing. Oxygen actually helps kill bacteria that cause disease, oxygen helps us live longer. Oxygen helps our body work better. So oxygen is pretty darn amazing and especially if utilize correctly, it works wonders.
Sherry: So Dr. Patel, why do dentists use ozone?
Dr. Patel: So you know, actually a lot of dentists don’t use ozone and they need to. The main reason for ozone is really to kill bad bacteria because there’s bacteria and viruses like the snake-like bacteria that cause gum disease and root canals. All of those bacteria, they cannot live if there’s oxygen around. So if you use ozone, it will kill them all and it’s amazing because there’s no need for antibiotics. There is no need for any other medication and oxygen is so good for our body and the way it’s delivered that it’s completely safe. I really love ozone for that reason. It is the best thing out there that is selective; means it only kills bad bugs. It’ll let the good bugs survive. It’ll kill the bad bugs and that’s why I love it so much.
Sherry: So, so important. So informative. I never knew this until I started working with you before, and I had done some research and talked to you and I love it. I think it should be used in more practices. It’s really important. But I have a question then. So we talk about this. How long does it take for ozone therapy to actually work?
Dr. Patel: So ozone therapy actually works pretty instantaneously. So for example, if somebody has gum disease, you know, ozone treatment will work instantaneously in killing off the bacteria. So as soon as the ozone touches the bacteria, it’ll kill them off. What I usually like to do is, I’m a Type A personality. I like to just be very sure that all the bacteria is gone. So if I do ozone therapy, I like to do it at least three times because when it’s done three times, it actually ensures that all the bacteria has been eliminated and they haven’t had a chance to regrow or repopulate. And in many cases actually, you can actually use ozone all over the body as well, believe it or not. And it actually promotes healing. For example, if you got a tick bite, you can actually use ozone. It’ll kill off the bugs or the eggs that are from the tick bite and it’ll start healing. That’s one of the biggest advantage of ozone is it kills the bad bug and also promotes healing.
Sherry: Wow. Okay. I have a question. I heard this, but I want to ask if this is true. Does ozone actually help with receding gums?
Dr. Patel: So ozone is a great tool to kill bacteria. It actually does not help receding gums. So receding gums is caused by if you brush the gums too much they’ll recede because it’s like skin, right? If you rub the skin too much, they’ll recede or sometimes if you’re crunching and grinding, the thinness part of the tooth is the neck. So the gum recedes because there’s too much pressure in those areas. So the cause of gum recession is from those reasons. And sometimes medications can cause gum recession as
well, but it’s not bacterial. What can help with ozone is there’s something we do we call pinhole gum therapy or pinhole gum rejuvenation. And we actually use ozone to help start healing quicker because what we do is we make little pinholes and we put collagen inside the area and we want the body to uptake that collagen. So what we can do is put ozone on the gum surfaces and what it’ll do is it’ll take that collagen and make new gum tissue very quickly and comfortably.
Sherry: So how often should you have the ozone therapy? What would you suggest?
Dr. Patel: So it would be depending on the procedure. So if it’s for gum disease, you know, ozone therapy, I personally like to use it three times as I was saying. The first time we would use ozone water to clean off and chunk off all the bacteria. Then once we’re done removing all the disease tissue, we would put ozone underneath the gums and let it sit there overnight. Then we would have the patient come back it maybe a day or two later, we’ll again go back in and remove any bacteria or any residual things that have come up and again go ahead and put that ozone in again. And usually a few months later, I like to have the patient come back and we put ozone around the area again,
Sherry: Dr. Patel, honestly, every time we talk about something new, I think it’s so important and it’s so informative for our patients to understand and realize this, and I appreciate you explaining it to me and as well to everyone else
that’s listening. It’s something that you know, if you want to consider or know that you need to have this treatment, discuss it with Dr. Patel and it’s great information to share. So, we want to invite you to visit our website at SFgreendentist.com or just give us a call at +1 415-761-3521. Thanks again, Dr. Patel for meeting and discussing with us.
Dr. Patel: Absolutely. Thank you so much Sherry.
