TECHNOLOGY AT VIVA SMILE: WHAT IT ACTUALLY DOES FOR YOU
Every dental office says it has advanced technology. Almost none of them tell you what it changes about your appointment. So this page is organized differently — not by what Viva Smile owns, but by what the equipment lets us do that most practices can't: show you your result before it's permanent, remove the needle and drill from most procedures, place implants exactly where the plan says, measure your bite instead of guessing at it, speed your healing with your own blood, and sedate you with hospital-grade monitoring.
Dr. Káren Baghdasaryan has been adopting technology early for two decades — early enough that local news stations came to Granada Hills to report on it. Here's what that looks like from your side of the chair.
You see your result before anything is permanent
The most consequential technology in this office isn't a single machine. It's a workflow.
Digital impressions, not putty.
Two intraoral scanners — iTero and Planmeca — capture a full 3D model of your teeth with a small handheld camera. No trays of impression material, no gagging, no waiting for it to set. The scan is accurate to a fraction of a millimeter and is on screen before you've left the chair.
Facial and 3D imaging.
Photographs, video of how you smile and speak, and a CBCT scan (a 3D X-ray of your jaws, teeth, and bone) complete the picture. Together with the intraoral scan, these are the raw material of the Digital Smile Design process: your smile is designed digitally in proportion to your face, not tooth by tooth in isolation.
In-house 3D printing.
The physical mockup you wear on Vogue Day — the one that shows you exactly what your new smile will look like before any permanent work begins — is printed here, in this office, on the day it's needed. The printer produces the accuracy and surface finish required for a wearable model that represents the final outcome, not an approximation. The same printer produces surgical guides, occlusal splints, and other appliances that used to mean an outside lab and a waiting period.
What this means for you: the question "will I like it?" is answered before a single tooth is touched. You look at your new smile in the mirror, in photos, in your own face — and approve it or change it — while it's still a mockup.
No needle and no drill for most procedures
Most patients associate dentistry with two things: the injection and the drill. Two technologies here remove them from most visits.
Solea CO₂ laser.
Solea is an all-tissue laser — the first of its kind cleared by the FDA for use on enamel, dentin, and soft tissue. It vaporizes tooth structure and tissue precisely, without the friction, vibration, or heat that make drilling uncomfortable. For most cavity preparations and soft-tissue procedures, no anesthetic injection is needed. Patients who have spent years dreading the needle sit down, and there isn't one.
Because the laser seals as it works, gum procedures produce very little bleeding and heal faster than conventional surgery. Hard-tissue and soft-tissue treatment can happen in the same visit without changing instruments. Work that would typically mean a specialist referral — periodontal therapy, gum recontouring, some oral surgery — stays in-house. The full account is on our Laser Dentistry page.
The Wand.
When an injection is needed, The Wand delivers it through a computer-controlled system that releases anesthetic at a slow, steady rate — below the threshold most people feel. It can also numb a single tooth rather than half your face, so you leave without the hours of a numb lip. Across dozens of independent reviews, patients describe the same thing: they didn't feel the shot.
What this means for you: the two experiences that keep people away from the dentist are, for most procedures here, simply not part of the appointment.
Implants placed exactly where the plan says
An implant that's a few degrees off doesn't fail on the day. It fails years later, in the crown that never fit right or the gum that receded around it. Precision at placement is the whole game.
CBCT planning.
The 3D scan shows bone volume, nerve position, and sinus anatomy before anything is planned — so the implant is designed into the bone you actually have, not the bone an ordinary X-ray suggests.
Guided surgery.
In DSD implant cases, the final tooth is designed first and the implant position is derived from where that tooth needs to be. A surgical guide, printed from that plan, directs the implant into position during surgery. What you saw in the design is what gets placed.
Piezoelectric bone surgery.
Ultrasonic bone surgery cuts bone with micro-vibrations that leave soft tissue — nerves, membranes, blood vessels — untouched. It's used for sinus lifts, bone grafting, and other surgical work where conventional rotary instruments carry more risk. The result is less trauma, less swelling, and more predictable healing.
What this means for you: the implant that goes in is the implant that was planned, placed by the same clinician who designed the tooth on top of it. There's no handoff for precision to fall through.
Your own blood, used to speed your healing
Healing after surgery — an extraction, a graft, an implant — depends on the body delivering growth factors to the site. We can concentrate them.
A small amount of your blood is drawn at the appointment and spun in a centrifuge to produce PRF (platelet-rich fibrin) or PRP (platelet-rich plasma): a concentrate of your own platelets and growth factors. Placed into the surgical site, it accelerates tissue and bone healing, reduces swelling and discomfort, and lowers the risk of complications like dry socket. It's used routinely in extractions, socket preservation, bone grafting, sinus lifts, and implant placement.
What this means for you: faster, more comfortable recovery from a material your body already recognizes as its own — no synthetic additives, no donor tissue.
A bite that's measured, not guessed
Articulating paper — the thin marking paper most dentists use to check your bite — shows where your teeth touch. It can't show how hard each tooth is hitting, in what order, or how your jaw actually moves. Bite problems that fracture teeth, wear down enamel, cause jaw pain, and break restorations are rarely about where teeth meet. They're about force, timing, and motion.
T-Scan bite-force analysis.
A thin sensor sits between your teeth and records, in real time, which teeth are carrying the most force and which contacts land early. The result is a map of what's actually happening, not a smudge on paper.
ModJaw jaw-motion tracking.
ModJaw records the movement of your jaw in three dimensions as you chew, speak, and close — and plays it back on your own 3D scan. It shows how your teeth travel across each other in function, not just where they rest. For bite reconstruction, that's the difference between designing a bite that looks right on a model and one that works in motion.
Both are used in full-mouth rehabilitation and any case where the bite is being rebuilt — worn teeth restored to their proper height, collapsed bites re-established, TMJ-related cases. This is the case type most practices avoid, and this is the reason it's routine here.
What this means for you: restorations built into a measured bite last. Restorations built into a guessed one are the ones that chip.
Sedation with hospital-grade monitoring
IV sedation is the practice's recommended method for anxious patients and longer procedures, and it's administered here with the same standard of monitoring you'd find in a hospital setting: a programmable infusion pump that delivers sedation at a precise, controlled rate, and continuous vital-signs monitoring — heart rate, blood pressure, oxygen saturation, respiration — throughout the appointment and recovery. Dr. Baghdasaryan trained in IV sedation at USC's Herman Ostrow School of Dentistry.
There's a second reason to trust the sedation standard here. Dr. Baghdasaryan serves as an evaluator for the Dental Board of California, conducting the site inspections and competency evaluations that other dentists must pass to receive a moderate sedation permit. The equipment, protocols, and emergency readiness he's assessing in other offices are the standard this one is held to.
What this means for you: you can be sedated for a full-arch case or a long surgical appointment knowing the person responsible is the one the State sends to certify whether others are qualified to do it.
Diagnostics that catch problems earlier
Digital radiography produces sharper images at a fraction of the radiation of film X-rays, on screen immediately. Laser cavity detection finds decay in its earliest stages — before it's visible on an X-ray — which means smaller fillings, or no filling at all when early decay can be managed. Same-day CAD/CAM milling means a crown can be designed, made, and fitted in a single visit, without a temporary and a two-week wait.
The technology serves the result, not the other way around
None of this is on display for its own sake. Each piece exists because it lets us do something for you that couldn't otherwise be done as well — show you the outcome first, take the fear out of the appointment, place an implant where it belongs, build a bite that lasts, heal you faster, and keep you safe while you're sedated.
If you'd like to see how it applies to your case, start with a dental exam. The scans and imaging are part of it, and you'll leave having seen your own teeth in 3D and understood exactly what's recommended and why. Book online or call (818) 900-2800. A free Zoom consultation with Dr. Baghdasaryan is also available if you'd like to talk it through first.
Frequently asked questions
Does all this technology make treatment more expensive?
The equipment is an investment the practice makes, not a line item you pay. Our fees are set by the procedure, not by which instrument is used. What the technology changes is the experience — fewer visits, less discomfort, more predictable results — and, over time, fewer redos.
Is laser treatment safe?
Yes. Solea is FDA-cleared for hard and soft tissue, and dental lasers have decades of clinical use. Because the laser seals tissue as it works, soft-tissue procedures typically bleed less and heal faster than conventional surgery.
Is the PRF/PRP blood draw painful?
It's a standard blood draw, like a lab test — a small amount from your arm at the start of the appointment. Most patients barely notice it, particularly if they're being sedated for the procedure anyway.
Do I need a special appointment for a digital scan or CBCT?
No. Scans and 3D imaging are part of the dental exam and the Smile Design Appointment. You don't go elsewhere for imaging; it's done here, in the same visit, and reviewed with you on screen.
What's the difference between the iTero and Planmeca scanners?
For you, nothing noticeable — both capture a precise 3D digital impression with a small camera and no impression material. Having two means scanning is never a bottleneck and each case uses the scanner best suited to it.
Why does bite measurement matter if my teeth feel fine?
Bite problems are usually silent until something breaks — a fractured tooth, a chipped crown, a worn edge. For anyone having significant restorative work, measuring the bite before rebuilding it is how the new work is protected from the forces that damaged the old.
