PLANS to get to the root of East Lancashire's NHS dental care shortage will come under the spotlight when a government minister visits tomorrow.

Health minister Rosie Winterton, who has special responsibility for dentists, has accepted an invitation by Labour's would-be MP for Burnley Kitty Ussher to come to the town and inspect the progress being made on getting more NHS dentists into the borough.

The visit will come just days after the Lancashire Evening Telegraph revealed children in parts of East Lancashire have twice as many rotten teeth as they did five years ago.

Figures from the British Association of Community Dentistry show the average 14-year-old in the area has up to 1.25 decayed teeth, compared to 0.70 in 1999.

There are 71 dentists in 37 practices across Burnley, Pendle and Rossendale and more than 156,000 people out of a population of 248,865 are either not registered with an NHS dentist or are registered with a private practice.

Rosie Winterton will view the new surgery that is in the finishing stages at Howard Street Health Centre, off Coal Clough Lane, which will provide 3,000 new places.

The minister will also hear of plans to open more NHS practices elsewhere in the borough, including the eight new dental suites in the health centre being built on the old St Peter's car park.

Mrs Ussher recently met with the Secretary of State for Health John Reid to raise the issue of dentists in East Lancashire and outgoing Burnley MP Peter Pike has raised the issue repeatedly in the House of Commons.

Mrs Ussher said: "I'm delighted that the minister for dentists has accepted my invitation to come and see for herself the situation here in Burnley and Padiham, following my recent lobbying of John Reid on this subject.

"The problem arose in large part because dentists decided of their own accord to go private, and we now have an unacceptable situation that needs sorting out urgently."

The government has set a target of an additional 32,000 places for NHS dental patients locally.

Plans to increase numbers of NHS dentists include: a surgery in Padiham; Expansion of the practice in Ightenhill on Padiham Road -- a revised planning application will be submitted to the council shortly; The new LIFT health centre that has just started construction on the site of the old St Peter's car park in Burnley will provide eight dental suites and extension of Howard Street Health Centre.