Ultrasonic X-rays

Innovator: Steve Baird
Age: 60
Chief executive officer of S-Ray, a Reno, Nev.-based startup with four full-time employees

Form and function
ClearView Scan, a combo of ultrasound hardware and 3D-imaging software, is meant to take the place of dental X-rays. It emits no harmful radiation and, its inventors say, makes more precise measurements than X-rays do.

Origin
Baird formed S-Ray in 2008 to develop the product after Oregon dentist Ken Johnson brought him a prototype based on the ultrasound devices used to examine lumber.

Funding
Some 200 individuals, including Johnson and about 100 other dentists, have invested about $10 million in S-Ray.

1. Scan
A patient bites a mouthpiece connected by USB cable to a dentist’s laptop. The dentist uses ultrasound transducers in the mouthpiece to scan the patient’s teeth in 40 seconds.