Can You Have Ozone Therapy Instead of a Root Canal?

If you have a dental abscess and need a root canal, then you may have heard that ozone therapy is an alternative to a traditional treatment where the tooth's canals are manually cleaned out and disinfected. How does ozone work on dental infections, and will it get rid of your abscess?

How Does Ozone Affect Dental Infections?

In dental treatments, ozone therapy targets infection and decay. This gas can disinfect areas that contain bacteria; as it disinfects and area, it also works on it as an antiseptic.

Ozone has the ability to kill bacteria and viruses. These substances usually have outer membranes that don't contain many antioxidants. So if they come into contact with an oxidant, they don't have any protection.

Ozone is rich in oxidants. They attack bacterial cell membranes and clean out the contents inside the cell. So, this kind of therapy can kill the bacteria that cause some dental problems.

Will Ozone Therapy Work on Your Dental Infection?

Ozone therapy can target and deal with dental bacteria even in hard to reach places such as inside root canals. Whether this treatment will work for your problem is down to your dentist and the extent of the work that needs to be done.

Some holistic dentists prefer not to use invasive treatment techniques. So, this kind of dentist might favour using ozone therapy on its own to target your infection and deal with it.

However, this may not work in every case. Ozone does kill dental bacteria, and it can reach into canals that are otherwise difficult to access. However, it might not be enough on its own to fix your abscess problems permanently, especially if you have deep-seated problems.

If the ozone doesn't eliminate all of the bacteria inside your tooth, then the infection is likely to return. You could be back at square one in the future.

Regular dentists who offer ozone therapy often use this option as part of their overall treatment. For example, they may use ozone to kill bacteria more quickly and to help them access difficultly placed canals.

Here, the dentist still does regular root canal cleaning work but also harnesses the disinfecting and bacteria-killing properties of the gas as part of the treatment. This usually makes root canal work easier, quicker and more effective.

To find out more about ozone therapy and whether it is an option for your root canal problem, ask your dentist for advice.