JUNIOR Health Minister Hazel Blears admitted that the whole of East Lancashire has had long-standing problems in gaining access to NHS dentistry but said the government was taking radical action to tackle the problem.

She said: "Throughout the 1990s, not just in East Lancashire but in many parts of the country, the NHS dentistry system went through a great deal of strain, with many dentists deciding to opt for private practice instead of concentrating on work in the NHS.

"The Government has tried to take practical steps to draw dentistry back into the NHS. In East Lancashire, a worryingly low number of dentists are prepared to take on new NHS patients.

"The health authority in East Lancashire has come up with a plan to provide dentistry in the community and has set standards that state that people should be able to get routine care within a 10-mile distance, emergency care within 12 miles and urgent care within 18 miles.

Those are long distances for people to have to travel, so we would like to improve on the standards.

"The plan identifies areas with particular problems such as Burnley, Pendle and Rossendale. The situation is slightly better in Blackburn, Hyndburn and the Ribble Valley, but gaps exist there, too. The health authority plans to introduce incentives into the system to encourage NHS dentists to increase the proportion of its practices devoted to NHS patients; payments are now available to dentists for that.

"We have given £50,000 to the dental care development fund to incentivise dentists, to which the health authority added £20,000. That is a fair-sized fund, which means that an extra 11,000 people can be registered in the area.

"In 2001-02, seven dental practices in East Lancashire have been approved as vocational training practices and can take on new trainees. It is hoped that young trainees will get to know the community, become settled in the area, appreciate the benefits that East Lancashire has to offer them and their families and develop practices.

Another creative way in which we have tried to provide services is through a pilot where salaried dentists are employed by the health authority to provide services to local people.

"I recognise that some access problems are fuelled by higher-than-average levels of dental disease in people living in East Lancashire.

"Water fluoridation offers the most effective means of reducing inequalities in oral health, but that is very controversial. We have commissioned research into the evidence of its effect not just on oral health but on health generally.

"East Lancashire is included in the areas involved in the national 'brushing for life' scheme in which families with young children are given packs containing fluoride toothpaste, a toothbrush and a leaflet on oral hygiene. Health visitors show children how to brush their teeth almost before they have teeth and help them into a habit of good, early oral health care and of regularly brushing their teeth, which can help to reduce some of the problems that arise later in life."

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