Nobody wants gingivitis, the painful gum disease that can make your teeth fall out. But detecting for the periodontal disease has always been a painful process. Just imagine having the dentist stick a thin, cold metal probe between your tooth and gum, then pulling it out and sticking it between the next tooth and gum, and so on.

Such a procedure may become obsolete. Visual Programs Inc., a Richmond-based software company, is working with NASA to develop the ultrasonagraphic probe. The USProbe, invented by former NASA scientist John Companion, is a non-invasive device that sends a sonic wave between the teeth and gums.

A receding gum line is one of the first signs of periodontal disease or gingivitis. Currently, doctors painstakingly place a metal probe between the gum and each tooth in a patient’s mouth. The information is recorded by writing it down themselves or calling out estimated measurements to an assistant, says John Senn, co-owner of Visual Programs Inc. The procedure is time-consuming for dentists and painful for patients. "What the USProbe will do is decrease the chance of human error, and take more accurate measurements," Senn says.

Visual Programs Inc. is responsible for developing software that will record those measurements. Senn says the device benefits doctors because it enhances a doctor’s ability to detect dental problems earlier, and the procedure is quicker and painless for patients.

Senn is part of a two-man team who contacted NASA when they learned the federal agency was conducting research on the device. Jack Singer, the president, had developed practice management software to sell to dentists in the early ’90s. Later, he developed Chart-It, the first tooth charting software, Senn says.

When Senn and Singer learned of Companion’s invention, they contacted him at the College of William and Mary where he was conducting research. Soon after, Visual Programs Inc. became the software arm for the project. The dentistry schools at VCU’s Medical College of Virginia and Old Dominion University have already started testing the product. Senn says nine other research centers across the United States are slated to do the same.

The National Institutes of Health and out-of-pocket contributions from Senn and Singer are funding the project. While a second NIH grant is expected to be awarded in September, Senn says the company is looking for private investors and venture capital funding. "The faster we get the money, the faster we’ll get it out," he says.