Access to NHS dental care in Birmingham is set to be boosted by the opening of three new dental surgeries across the city.
The first of the new practices opened last week in Great Barr and health chiefs hope it will also help improve access to NHS dentistry for residents in nearby Oscott and Perry Barr.
The other surgeries will open soon, and between them the three Birmingham practices should provide thousands of NHS places.
Ros Hamburger, consultant in dental public health for the Heart of Birmingham Teaching Primary Care Trust (PCT), said: "Traditionally residents in these areas have suffered from a lack of choice of a local dentist, which has contributed to a very low rate of registrations."
"A recent patient consultation also showed that residents wanted additional surgeries and were keen to see opening hours extended into the evening and weekends, plus access to urgent care where appropriate."
"We are delighted to be able to address all of these issues with these new surgeries, one of which has already opened."
The PCT spent three months last year investigating the standard of public access to dentists after government figures revealed that NHS dentists in Birmingham saw 66,000 fewer patients in the 18 months after the controversial new dental contract was introduced in April 2006.




