The Sacramento Dentistry Group has launched the VELscope system for all oral exams conducted during routine dental appointments. The VELscope handheld device allows a dentist or hygienist to see potential tissue abnormalities long before they would be visible to the naked eye. VELscope does this without radiation or special rinses. The technique uses a finely tuned blue light and eye filter to differentiate between normal and potentially diseased tissues.

Oral cancer is not a common disease for low-risk groups, but it is a very dangerous form of cancer. In the words of the European Journal of Cancer Prevention, "Early diagnosis and treatment is the key to improved patient survival." Recognizing pre-cancerous growths is difficult, however, if they are underneath the outermost layer of oral tissue. The VELscope reveals these diseased tissues by relying on the natural phosphorescence found in collagen fibers. These fibers are present in healthy oral tissue and absent or masked in diseased tissue. By shining a specific frequency of light in your mouth, the VELscope shows our Sacramento dentists areas of the mouth requiring close investigation for disease. These diseased areas appear dark in the VELscope lens, compared to healthy tissues which fluoresce brightly. Reports show that dentists using the VELscope are considerably more effective in locating problem tissues that otherwise would have been missed.

No side effects are caused by the VELscope, since it relies on low-powered light only. In this sense, the device is similar to the tool used by a medical doctor to check the ears and eyes during a routine check-up.