Clinical Reversal of Caries Using Ozone; Economics of Ozone Dental Care.

H. NICHOLSON & J. HOLMES. (Adentec & UKSmiles, 3 Old Row Court, Rose Street, Wokingham, Berkshire, UK)

Ozone has been shown to clinically reverse carious lesions. This poster shows the potential savings that could be made in the developed European countries with the HealOzone.

Objectives: This poster demonstrates the potential savings to centrally funded dental health care in the treatment of caries with an ozone delivery system in various European and other countries.

Methods: Data from various studies showing the effective reversal of dental caries has been drawn together using the DIAGNOdent and other tests (eg, the CSI3). Data was obtained on the cost of dental heath care in various European and other countries. The results are used to extrapolate the potential savings to centrally funded dental health care.

Results: Allowing for training and take up of the HealOzone technology, savings of 80% to 99% for some of the costs of dental health can be achieved. Translated into financial costs, the savings represent a win-win situation for all concerned; countries potentially can save large sums of money, and patients no longer are consigned to the cycle of increasingly more complex and costly restorative care, culminating in potential tooth loss.

Conclusions: Ozone can be considered to be an effective alternative to conventional "drilling and filling" for early carious lesions. The potential savings to institutionalized and state-funded dental care are large. In the developing and under-developed countries, these savings have the potential to have a huge impact on the cost of the provision of dental health care.