Thousands of people in Central Lancashire are still waiting to be allocated an NHS dentist, new figures have revealed.
According to the NHS Central Lancashire's Dental Access database, there are currently 5,202 people registered as waiting for NHS dental treatment, with the majority (4,445) from Preston.
However, there are growing fears that this number could be a lot higher as many residents have not registered with the database while others have resigned themselves to paying for private dental care .
Defending their position, a spokesman for NHS Central Lancashire said: "Between April 1, 2008 and January 31, 2009, 19,946 patients have been removed from the Dental Access database and are now receiving NHS dental care ."
"NHS Central Lancashire has recently completed a procurement exercise to both replace and increase access to NHS dental services across the whole of Central Lancashire, and it is anticipated that these services will become available in mid 2009."
"In addition, the Primary Care Trust has secured additional activity from a number of practices across Central Lancashire, which equates to another three dentists ."
