2752 Clinical Reversal of Occlusal Pit and Fissure Caries Using Ozone

J. HOLMES, Private Practice, Berkshire, United Kingdom Ozone has been shown to clinically reverse primary root carious lesions and occlusal fissure caries. This study aimed to assess the use of ozone to manage fissure caries extending up to 2 mms into Dentine in a general dental practice.

Objectives: This study assessed the effect of an ozone delivery system (HealOzone unit, CurOzone USA and KaVo Germany) on primary occlusal fissure carious lesions over a 12-month period. Methods: 376 patients in a general dental practice were entered with 2364 primary occlusal fissure carious lesions with caries judged to extending up to 2 mms into Dentine in 1170 teeth. After randomization, lesions were assigned to either receiving no treatment or ozone treatment. The DIAGNOdent (KaVo, Germany) was employed to objectively quantify primary occlusal fissure carious lesions. Ozone was applied to each test lesion for 10, 20, 30 or 40 seconds depending on the clinical severity index and repeated 3 monthly if reversal had not occurred. Patients were recalled at 12 months and clinically re-assessed. After rerecording the clinical severity of each lesion, the DIAGNOdent was again employed to objectively quantify these primary occlusal pit and fissure carious lesions. Results: 315 patients had been recalled for re-evaluation. There were no observed adverse events. 99% of the ozone treated primary occlusal fissure carious lesions (1918 lesions) had clinically reversed and this correlated with the improvement in the DIAGNOdent readings (P<0.01). The control carious lesions, which had not received any ozone treatment, did not significantly change in the study period.

Conclusions: This treatment regime using ozone may be considered to be an effective alternative to conventional "drilling and filling" for carious lesions in general dental practice.