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Dental statistics
29/01/2008
Figures published today show a rise in the number of NHS dentists and an increase in the number of patients registered with an NHS dentist.
The statistics show that between June and September last year, the number of adults registered with an NHS dentist rose from 46.5 per cent to 48.6 per cent.
In the same period, the number of children registered rose from 67.5 per cent to 69.9 per cent.
And the number of dentists working in the NHS increased by 78 - 2.7 per cent - from 2,842 in September 2006 to 2,920 in September 2007.
Minister for Public Health Shona Robison today visited Chalmers Street Dental Centre in Edinburgh to welcome the figures.
She said:
"Today's figures are really encouraging and I am very pleased that more people are now registered with an NHS dentist than have been for a number of years.
"The Scottish Government is absolutely committed to widening access to NHS dentistry.
"But I am not complacent - I know there is still much more to be done and some parts of Scotland still have problems with access to an NHS dentist.
"I am confident that the strategies we have in place, and new developments coming on stream such as the Aberdeen Dental School, will continue to drive improvements like we are seeing in today's figures.
"We are developing outreach training centres throughout Scotland including Aberdeen, Inverness and Dumfries and Galloway and NHS boards now have the authority to appoint directly salaried dentists.
"We are increasing the number of dental students in training and opening a third dental school for Scotland in Aberdeen will further increase numbers."
Chalmers Street Dental Centre was opened in 2005 to expand NHS Lothian's salaried dental service. As well as providing emergency treatment for patients not registered with a dentist, it directs patients to dentists taking on NHS patients and performs specialist dental surgery.