A comparator may automatically detect and quantify subtle and/or microscopic variance to a feature of a three-dimensional (“3D”) object in a reproducible manner based on point cloud imaging of that 3D object. The comparator may isolate a first set of data points, that represent the object feature at a first time, in a reference point cloud, and may isolate a second set of data points, that represent the same but altered object feature at a different second time, in a non-reference point cloud. The comparator may detect variance between positional values and visual characteristic values of the second set of data points and the corresponding positional values and visual characteristic values of the first set of data points, and may quantify a change occurring to the object feature between the first time and the second time based on a mapping of the variance to a particular unit of measure.