THE FUTURE of dentistry has arrived - and it's tucked away inside a Victorian townhouse in the East End of Glasgow.

Behind the ageing, tiled entrance of number five Annefield Place in Dennistoun lies a multi-million pound dental lab which is changing the face of the industry. How it works A SCANNER is placed inside the mouth to take a video, which is then e-mailed back to the lab technicians.

From there, a model is made by rapid prototyping using nylon material and for the first time, the core of the tooth and the tooth shape can be made at the same time using precise milling techniques.

Dental restorations are produced from a precise drilling process called milling, where raw zirconia - the strongest ceramic known to man - is shaped using computer aided design.

"It's more precise than a human can make by hand," said Graham Littlejohn. "But we still need skilled dental technicians to individually stain and customise each tooth."

Dental Technology Services, a family-run business set up in 1943, is the first laboratory in the UK to use pictures taken inside patients' mouths with an oral scanner.

DTS, which employs around 90 staff, makes 3000 teeth a month, representing a 65% share of the UK market. It's the UK's largest outsourcing centre, manufacturing crowns, bridges and false teeth for more than 300 laboratories across Britain.

The scanner or, to give it its Sunday name, the 3M EPSE Lava Chairside Oral Scanner, replaces the uncomfortable, traditional process dentists have used to take impressions of teeth for restoration purposes.

It means they will be able to e-mail pictures directly to the lab for crowns and bridges to be made more accurately, using new materials.

DTS is showcasing the scanner as part of the official opening of its new £2million digital dental laboratory, which is the first of its kind in Europe to bring together state-of-the-art dental scanning, rapid prototyping of the mouth and computer aided milling techniques to make teeth from a hard ceramic called zirconia.

Graham Littlejohn, 37, who runs the business with his father Alex and brothers Sandy, 42, and Laurie, 39, said: "The oral scanner will make a real difference to patients - it removes the need for horrible, uncomfortable impressions which taste unpleasant and can make you gag.

"Instead, an oral scanner, no bigger than a large pen, is placed in the mouth and takes a video.

"The patient will be able to see it on screen. The scan will then be e-mailed to the technicians at the lab."

The new scanner is expected to be available to dentists from June, and will cost around £15,000.

Jamie Newlands, clinical director of the Berkeley Clinic in Charing Cross, is the first UK dentist to have bought one.

The 30-year-old said: "It's very exciting for Glasgow, and for Scotland, to be the first place in the UK to have these scanners.

"This is the biggest product launch in dentistry for many years - it's equivalent to changing from film to digital photography, and will have just as big an impact.

"From the patient's point of view, it's fantastic. We specialise in treating patients who are very nervous about going to the dentist and this will make a big difference to them as it is a quicker, much more pleasant experience."

The DTS scanner is being used in training seminars around the UK. It will then be sold to Duncan Black and Kieran Docherty's dental practice in High Street.

Graham Littlejohn admits it could be some time before every dental practice has an oral scanner because of the costs involved, but believes it's important for dentists to move with the times.

He said: "It is a significant sum of money, particularly in the current economic climate.

"We have invested £2m in our new digital lab - without any support from external agencies - and that is a lot of money for a family firm in the East End of Glasgow.

"But we are doing well because we have embraced technology, and understand that if we do not invest in technology and move with the times, we will be left behind, and that's the end for the business."

The new scanner is not the first time DTS has pioneered innovations in dentistry.

In 1984, it introduced porcelain veneers to the UK, and in 2004, it was the first place in the UK to have a Lava milling centre.

Lava crowns and bridges are made with a zirconia framework, which is a hi-tech ceramic milled to a fit using computer technology.