Ozone in Dentistry: What Dentists Should Know About This Gas?

Many centuries ago, the Greeks noticed a peculiar odor in air that followed lightning and thunderstorm and described it ‘ozein’ meaning ‘to smell’ (Asimov, 1964). In 1839, C. F. Schoenbein (Mordecai, 2001), a professor of chemistry at Besal, discovered a gas that was produced by electric discharges in air. He noted its strong oxidizing property, which was by then known as ozone. In his experiment the fetid smell of a highly putrefied piece of flesh was destroyed by ozone gas. He concluded that ozone was a powerful oxidant as well as a disinfectant (Bocci, 2004). Soon after that, the first ozone generator was constructed in Berlin, Germany. During the same period Nikola Tesla, a physicist, patented his ozone generator and later formed the Tesla Ozone Company (Patents of Nikola Tesla ‘Apparatus of producing Ozone’ Patent Number 568,177 September 22, 1886). In the early 1900’s ozone was being used for drinking water treatment and ozone plants were built in Monaco and Nice, France (Kerwin, 2005).