IN the 21st century good dental care means tooth decay is largely preventable.

And that's why today's figures from the British Association of Community Dentistry showing a big deterioration in dental health since 1999 are so horrifying.

Teenagers in some parts of East Lancashire have twice as many rotten teeth as they did five years ago and in Blackburn with Darwen an average 14-year-old has teeth with twice the national average amount of decay.

While the sort of unhealthy diets we've heard so much about in recent weeks and lack of proper brushing of teeth will have played a part you don't have to be a detective to deduce the major reason for this shameful - and painful -state of affairs.

It coincides with the well-chronicled decline in NHS places as dentists began going private making it difficult if not impossible for people to find surgeries where they could sign up and get a check up without having to pay.

We are told that situation is now being addressed and around 70,000 new NHS dental places are to be created basically because cash has been made available to encourage dentists to set up in East Lancashire.

But sadly that help has come too late for those who will face dental problems for many years because of a lack of effective treatment in childhood.