DENTAL care in this country has for too long been a cumbersome mix of NHS and private provision.

For many patients, NHS treatment either isn't available or can only be had by travelling long distances.

In a country which prides itself on its health service, this remains an anomaly.

Good dental health is vital for a general sense of well being and the arrival of toothache often heralds two kinds of pain - physical and financial. How disgraceful that in modern Britain treatment for our teeth can be so expensive that some people simply avoid going to the dentist altogether.

So it is good to report today that a dental practice in Haxby has announced that it will be able to take on 1,200 new NHS patients during the next year. The extra spaces have become available following investment of £50,000 in two new surgeries.

This is good news at a time when, across the country, more people complain that they cannot find NHS treatment.

Although this problem is at its worst in the South East, the slow decline nationally in NHS dental provision remains very worrying.

In large part, the problem is historical and dates back to a payment arrangement first struck more than 50 years ago.

Dentists are paid piecemeal for NHS treatment. To earn a decent amount from the health service dentists could, in effect, be doing work which is unnecessary and cosmetic.

The bill for scaling and polishing alone in England and Wales is £137 million a year.

According to a report today from the Audit Commission, the NHS wastes more than £150 million a year on such superfluous treatment.

The report suggests six-monthly check-ups for adults are not necessary and that intervals of two or three years would be more appropriate.

Yet under the present system, any patient who waited that long would find themselves struck off the NHS register.

The report blames the system and not the dentists.

It seems that NHS dentistry itself is long overdue for a check-up.

Updated: 10:34 Thursday, September 19, 2002