Three dimensional scans are increasingly used to quantify biological topographical changes and clinical health outcomes. Traditionally, this has been limited to specialised centres due to the necessity for expensive scanning equipment and complex analysis software. Within dentistry, improving technology has made cheaper, more accessible methods of data capture and analysis available, potentially facilitating a primary care system to quantify disease progression. However, this system has yet to be compared with previous high precision methods in university hospital settings. The aim of this study was to compare a dental primary care method of data capture (intraoral scanners) with a precision hospital-based method of data capture (laser profilometer) in addition to comparing open source and commercial softwares available to analyse data.