What if your next trip to the dentist hurt less? What if your treatment was more accurate? What if you could visualize the outcome of your next visit before you even sit in the chair? As "Tech Live" reports tonight that's the mission of Dr. James Mah, director of the Craniofacial Virtual Reality Laboratory at the University of Southern California's School of Dentistry.

"My research is about taking 3D-imaging modalities and integrating to reconstruct or build an entire patient on the computer," Mah said.

3D imaging produces images seen from different angles, layers, and perspectives, creating a very accurate likeness of the dental area not seen in conventional X-rays.

"We've learned that in the 2D world, super position and projection errors can lead to a lot of misconceptions about patient anatomy," Mah said. "Whereas in 3D you can turn it around, you can have software that removes parts of certain structures, cuts in half this way or that way. And you can view it much better."

Easing minds

It's beneficial to patients such as Jeffrey Lee. He has a protruding lip caused by the displacement of his teeth. Doctors need 18 months to correct the problem, and although Jeffrey has already underwent painful removal of his molars and wisdom teeth, as well as construction of braces, he found comfort in the 3D imaging.

"It's very difficult for the patient to imagine what's the result, but with the 3D program you know the result, so you are more confident about the treatment," he said. "It's great. I see my improvement every day."

And dental professionals say they believe the technology is valuable.

"It allows us to use a very minimally invasive approach," said Dr. Michael Jorgensen of USC's School of Dentistry. "It's much easier on the patient. [There's] less chance on damaging the teeth and adjacent structures. It makes a world of difference with this, over conventional X-rays and radiographs. It's 100 percent different, really."

There are only about a dozen machines in the United States that can produce detailed 3D dental imaging. The machine is a dental volumetric scanner called the Newtom QR-DVT-9000. It's manufactured by manufactured by Aperio Services. But cutting-edge dentistry doesn't stop there.

A jaw motion analyzer, already used in Germany, is in the process of getting FDA approval in the United States. It's a head-mounted device that can be used to investigate jaw-alignment and other severe problems.

"Ultimately what we're after is kind of a one-click solution where you click a button and all the different imaging modalities comes together and simply re-creates the patient in front of you in the computer," Mah said.

Here is a list of US cities where 3D dental imaging facilities are located:

• San Francisco, California
• San Rafael, California
• Palo Alto, California
• Mountain View, California
• San Mateo, California
• Sacramento, California
• Vacaville, California
• Loma Linda, California
• Upland, California
• Littleton, Colorado
• Olean, New York
• Minneapolis, Minnesota
• Chapel Hill, North Carolina
• Reno, Nevada
• St. Petersburg, Florida
• Atlanta, Georgia
• Seattle, Washington

To find out more information, go to the Aperio Services website.