WITH dental health in East Lancashire among the worst in the country and less than half the people in the region having access to an NHS dentist, there is bound to be a welcome for the move to give health chiefs greater power to deal with the problem.

Its scale was graphically highlighted last year when a new practice opened in Rossendale and hundreds queued for hours to register.

But though that episode put the situation into sharp focus, the fact is that every day thousands of people are going without treatment because they do not have an NHS dentist and cannot afford to go private.

And while lifestyles may have a significant influence on the poor state of dental health in our region -- where small children have almost twice as many teeth decayed, filled or missing than the national average -- the unavailability of dental care is, surely, just as great a factor.

Now that the government is to hand control of the £1.2billion NHS dental budget to primary care trusts, the prospect of more dentists in East Lancashire doing NHS work is set to increase -- as more may be employed directly by the trusts and self-employed ones may be offered incentives to treat non-private patients.

It may take time for the effect to be felt, but such efforts to stop the rot are needed and are long overdue.