Ozone therapy uses medical-grade ozone, a highly reactive three-atom form of oxygen written as O3, to support healing and reduce inflammation in injured tissue. In our practice it is most often delivered by injection directly into a painful joint or the connective tissue surrounding it, where it improves local circulation and oxygen delivery and helps reduce the oxidative stress that keeps inflammation going.
The version most of our patients receive is Prolozone® therapy, which combines medical-grade ozone with targeted nutrients in a single injection. The name reflects its relationship to prolotherapy, an older technique that stimulates healing in weakened ligaments and connective tissue. Prolozone builds on that approach by adding ozone, and in practice it tends to require fewer sessions, involve fewer needle sticks, and produce less discomfort during treatment.
The reason it works comes back to a problem that shows up throughout this practice. Ligaments and connective tissue have notoriously poor blood supply, which is exactly why they heal so slowly and so incompletely. A partially torn ligament is not failing to heal because your body does not want to. It is failing because not enough blood, oxygen, and nutrition is reaching the tissue to do the job.
Prolozone addresses that limitation directly. By improving circulation into structures the bloodstream barely serves, it creates conditions in which partially torn or weakened tissue can begin to regenerate. Patients frequently report meaningful gains in range of motion alongside reduced pain.
What We Use Ozone and Prolozone For
Prolozone is used for essentially all forms of musculoskeletal and joint pain, which makes it one of the more versatile tools in the practice. It is used both on its own and as a component of a larger plan.
Common applications include:
- Osteoarthritis and joint pain, particularly in the knees, hips, and hands, where reducing inflammation and oxidative stress can improve both comfort and range of motion.
- Chronic back pain and degenerated spinal discs, where it is frequently paired with spinal decompression.
- Herniated discs and sciatica, addressing the inflammation surrounding an irritated nerve root.
- Rotator cuff injuries and shoulder pain, along with other tendon and ligament damage that has not responded to rest.
- Ligament laxity and joint instability, where weakened connective tissue is no longer supporting the joint properly.
- Chronic musculoskeletal pain that has persisted despite conservative treatment.
Ozone therapy is also used to support immune function and general wellness, most often delivered intravenously. That application has its own page: see IV ozone therapy.
1. Evaluation.
Dr. Joseph Sclafani, M.D., QME, or Megan O’Connor, MSN, FNP-BC, examines you, reviews your history and imaging, and determines whether ozone-based treatment fits your case and where it should be directed. All injection-based treatment here is physician or nurse practitioner administered.
2. Your treatment plan.
You get a clear explanation of what is recommended, how many sessions to expect, what it should accomplish, and what it will cost, before anything begins.
3. The injection.
Medical-grade ozone, combined with nutrients in the case of Prolozone, is injected directly into the affected joint or the connective tissue around it. The procedure is quick and performed in our office. Compared to traditional prolotherapy, it typically involves fewer needle sticks per session.
4. The days afterward.
Mild soreness in the treated area for a day or two is common and expected. Most patients return to normal activity right away, with guidance on what to avoid in the short term.
5. A series, then reassessment.
Prolozone is generally delivered as a short series rather than a single treatment, with the number depending on your condition and response. We reassess against your baseline and adjust rather than working through a fixed package regardless of results.
6. Care that supports the result.
Ozone treatment works better within a plan. Chiropractic care with Dr. Lina Yousofi, D.C., addresses the mechanics, spinal decompression relieves compression where that is a factor, and rehabilitation rebuilds the support around the treated area.
How Prolozone Fits With Everything Else
Patients often ask how to choose between Prolozone, PRP, and the other options on our menu. The honest answer is that it is usually not a choice, and framing it that way misunderstands how these treatments work.
They do different jobs. PRP delivers concentrated growth factors from your own blood to stimulate repair in damaged tissue. Prolozone improves circulation and oxygen delivery into structures the bloodstream struggles to reach, and reduces the oxidative stress and inflammation sitting on top of the problem. Spinal decompression relieves mechanical pressure. Chiropractic care corrects the alignment that caused the uneven loading. Rehabilitation makes the whole thing durable.
A worn or injured joint typically has several of these problems at once, which is why our plans combine treatments in a sequence rather than offering one and hoping. It is also the clearest difference between how we practice and the single-injection model advertised elsewhere. One shot can address one part of the problem. It cannot address the rest, which is why so many patients tell us a standalone injection helped for a while and then faded.
Prolozone pairs particularly well with spinal decompression. Decompression relieves the pressure while Prolozone supports the structures meant to hold that correction in place, and the combination gives many patients a non-surgical path they did not think they had.
Ozone Therapy in Tracy and the Central Valley
Ozone and Prolozone therapy are not widely available, and patients in this part of San Joaquin County have historically had to travel to find them. Offering them here in Tracy, delivered by a board-certified pain medicine physician rather than as a standalone wellness service, is genuinely uncommon in the valley.
That distinction matters. Ozone therapy is offered in a range of settings, and the setting shapes the care. Here it is delivered within a medical practice, following an examination, as part of a documented plan, by providers who will tell you if it is not the right fit for your problem.
We see patients from Mountain House, Lathrop, Manteca, Stockton, Lodi, and Ripon. Our office is at 227 East 11th Street, on 11th by Tracy High School, across from McDonald’s, sharing a parking lot with Center Appliances.
