HEALTH chiefs were celebrating today with the news that East Lancashire's dental services had moved out of the relegation zone.

The area's dental crisis is set to take a giant leap forward with the opening of a new NHS service in Burnley next month.

And in a move designed to boost the number of surgeons practicing in the area, newly-graduated dentists are to be encouraged to head for East Lancashire.

The news comes after a visit from a senior officer from the Department of Health.

Pam Scoular travelled to the area after it was revealed in the House of Commons that one Rossendale patient walked seven miles for treatment.

East Lancashire also has one of the poorest records for tooth decay in children in the UK.

Dr Gary Whittle, consultant in dental public health, praised the progress being made in East Lancashire.

Dr Whittle said: "These are huge leaps forward. We have done excellently to get funding from the Department of Health for these new services.

"The Howard Street site in Burnley will open next month and is going to be a new NHS practice which will be able to provide treatment for adults.

"In Barnoldswick a mobile dentist practice opened earlier this month and there is also a service at Nelson Health Centre.

"The vibes are very good but it is one thing to get the money and it is another thing to put an advert in and get someone to come to the area, but we are now getting some movement on people applying for salaried positions."

In January, Rossendale and Darwen MP Janet Anderson reported in the Commons that a constituent had walked to Rochdale to get emergency dental treatment.

She asked questions of Junior Health Minister Hazel Blears to find out what was happening to improve the situation in East Lancashire after shock figures revealed than, for the three months up to September, more than 15,000 fewer people were on dentists' waiting lists than the previous three months.

Her call prompted the visit by Pam Scoular, who is now looking into setting up more general dental practitioners in Rossendale and also looking at the possibility of retaining vocational dental practitioners who are doing their first year out of dental school.

Dr Whittle said: "I am very firmly of the belief that we need to make sure more newly-graduated dentists are directed to East Lancashire after training, although we have not made much progress so far."

In five year old children locally have an average of 2.6 teeth decayed, filled or missing compared to a national average of 1.4.

Dr Whittle said: "We were in 99th position in the league and we are now 94th in the country for tooth decay. It is still bad but we have got out of the relegation zone."