MORE than one in three children in Lancaster could be suffering from tooth decay, according to the latest official research.

Across Lancashire, the average five-year-old child has more than two missing, filled or decaying teeth - twice the level of decay of children in other parts of the country.

But the problems are not being matched by a sufficient increase in funding for NHS dental services, says Lancaster and Fylde MP Ben Wallace.

Latest research suggests that 38 per cent of five-year-old children in Lancaster could have bad teeth - putting the area in the bottom half of 303 English health regions surveyed, he says.

Though the Government announced a £50 million cash boost to improve local NHS dental services last year, just four per cent of that funding is coming to Lancashire and Cumbria.

Mr Wallace says: "NHS dentistry in many parts of Lancaster is in a perilous state with hundreds of families unable to get on the books of their local dentist.

"But despite the clear evidence that children's' teeth are suffering, the Government has so far failed to come forward with anything like the necessary urgency.

"Last year's allocation of £2 million in extra cash for dentistry across Lancashire and Cumbria was never going to be enough to tackle the lack of NHS dentists in every city, town and village from Carlisle to Ormskirk.

"Much more needs to be done and I will pressing Health Ministers to provide real answers in the days and weeks ahead."