Methods: A total of 260 subjects, each with 2 primary root carious lesions (PRCLs) were recruited. 60 Subjects had each 2 soft PRCL's and 200 subjects had each 2 leathery non cavitated PRCL's which were in the least severe leathery category (J Dent Res 1993,73: 623-629). The lesions were randomly assigned into two groups; treated with ozone, or no ozone. The Ozone treatment was applied by a different operator than the one recording the clinical criteria used to define the severity of the lesions. When no Ozone was applied the cup and suction system were placed on the control lesion for the same time interval as on the test lesions. At baseline, 3 and 6 months, the lesions were clinically assessed as soft, leathery or hard, scored with the validated root caries severity index and received treatment as at baseline.

Results: After 6 months, there were no observed adverse events, 48 of the ozone treated soft PRCL’s had reversed from severity index 4 to 3, whilst the control soft lesions did not significantly change (p < 0.01), 189 of ozone treated leathery PRCL’s had reversed from severity index 1 to 0 (i.e., hard and arrested), whilst the control leathery lesions did not significantly change (p < 0.01).

Conclusions: Leathery non cavitated primary root caries can be arrested non-operatively with ozone. This novel treatment regime using ozone is an effective alternative to conventional management methods including "drilling and filling". 1 HealOzone unit, CurOzone USA and KaVo

Keywords: Gerontology, Cariology, Therapeutics, Clinical trials, Remineralization

First Author

Presenting
Edward Lynch, BDentSc, FDS, Ph
Second Author
Newton Johnson, BDS, FDS
Third Author
Judith Johnson, MSC