Key Takeaways
- Prolozone® Therapy is a non-surgical treatment that uses medical-grade ozone and anti-inflammatory nutrients to help relieve chronic pain.
- Developed by Dr. Frank Shallenberger, this therapy treats conditions such as back pain, sciatica, and joint injuries by restoring tissue health.
- The therapy involves injections of nutrients, followed by ozone, to promote oxygen use and stimulate the body’s repair mechanisms.
- Prolozone® has a strong safety profile, is free from opioids and NSAIDs, and shows no risk of addiction or tissue damage.
- Most patients require 3 to 6 sessions, each lasting 15 to 20 minutes, with no anesthesia required.
Prolozone® Therapy is a regenerative injection treatment that uses medical-grade ozone combined with targeted anti-inflammatory nutrients to stimulate healing in damaged tissue. It’s used to treat chronic back pain, joint pain, sciatica, ligament injuries, and a range of other musculoskeletal conditions — without surgery, opioids, or steroid injections.
If you’ve been researching non-surgical options for persistent pain and come across the term Prolozone®, this article gives you a clear, straightforward explanation of what it is, how it works, what it treats, and what you can realistically expect.
Where Prolozone® Therapy Comes From
Prolozone® Therapy was developed by Dr. Frank Shallenberger, MD, a physician who combined principles from prolotherapy — a regenerative injection technique — with his extensive background in medical ozone to create a more effective approach to musculoskeletal healing. Dr. Shallenberger currently serves as president of the American Academy of Ozonotherapy and has trained physicians nationwide in the protocol.
Dr. Steven Wiener of Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, trained directly under Dr. Shallenberger and is board-certified in both Pain Management and Anesthesiology — a meaningfully higher credential level than most wellness clinics offering ozone-based treatments.
The Problem Prolozone® Is Designed to Solve
Most chronic musculoskeletal pain — whether in the spine, joints, or soft tissue — shares a common underlying pattern. Tissue is damaged. The body initiates a repair response. However, the healing stalls — usually because the damaged structure (a disc, ligament, tendon, or cartilage surface) has poor blood supply and therefore receives insufficient oxygen and nutrients to complete the repair process.
As a result, the tissue remains in a chronic inflammatory state and continues to generate pain. Standard treatments that suppress the pain signal — cortisone shots, NSAIDs, rest — provide temporary relief while they’re active, but the underlying damage stays, and the pain returns. Prolozone® Therapy targets this specific problem by restoring the biological conditions the tissue needs to actually heal.
What’s in a Prolozone® Injection?
A Prolozone® injection contains two components delivered in sequence to the affected area. First, an anti-inflammatory nutrient formula is injected—typically containing homeopathic anti-inflammatory compounds, vitamins, and minerals that address immediate tissue irritation and provide the raw materials for cellular repair. Second, medical-grade ozone is introduced, which dramatically increases oxygen utilization at the cellular level through a process called oxidative preconditioning.
This combination activates the body’s own repair cells. Fibroblasts begin rebuilding connective tissue, chondroblasts begin repairing cartilage, and the chronic inflammatory cycle that drives the pain begins to resolve. Because of this, improvement with Prolozone® is typically progressive and cumulative — each session builds on the last as the tissue continues to repair.
What Conditions Does Prolozone® Treat?
Prolozone® Therapy is used to treat a wide range of chronic pain conditions, including chronic lower back and neck pain, herniated and degenerative discs, sciatica and nerve root irritation, knee and hip osteoarthritis, shoulder pain and rotator cuff injuries, ligament and tendon damage, sports injuries, and post-surgical residual pain. It’s particularly effective for patients who have plateaued with physical therapy, found only temporary relief from steroid injections, or been told surgery is their only remaining option.
Is Prolozone® Safe?
Medical-grade ozone has been used in clinical medicine for over a century, primarily in Europe, and has a well-established safety profile when administered by a trained physician at appropriate concentrations. Prolozone® contains no opioids, no corticosteroids, and no NSAIDs. It carries no addiction risk and no systemic side effects. Unlike repeated cortisone injections — which carry documented risks of cartilage and tendon degradation — Prolozone® has no documented risk of tissue damage with repeated use.
What to Expect from Treatment
Each Prolozone® session is performed entirely in the office and takes approximately 15 to 20 minutes. No anesthesia is required, and most patients return to normal activity the same day. Most conditions require between three and six sessions, spaced one to two weeks apart. Dr. Wiener evaluates every patient thoroughly before recommending treatment and provides a realistic assessment of what Prolozone® can achieve for your specific condition.
His practice is located at 359 Enterprise Ct in Bloomfield Hills, MI, serving patients throughout Oakland County, including Troy, West Bloomfield, Rochester Hills, Birmingham, and Farmington Hills. Call (248) 291-7223 to schedule a consultation.
