A NEW service is being set up to treat the 63 per cent of people in Burnley, Pendle and Rossendale not registered with an NHS dentist.

The Pendle Personal Dental Service, due to open in Nelson on May 28, will provide emergency and short-course treatment.

It is among a range of measures being used by the Burnley, Pendle and Rossendale Primary Care Trust (PCT) to help patients unable to register with a NHS dentist, a figure that has risen by 21,000 in three years due to dentists retiring or going private.

More than 157,000 people out of a population of 249,000 are not registered.

Two dentists will be based at the Booth Street centre but no new patients will be able to register. Instead, patients with dental problems can phone NHS direct and will be referred there, with 12 appointments a day.

Similar centres already exist in Barnoldwick, Burnley and Rossendale and the PCT hopes to expand the centres to allow more people to benefit.

Other measures to get more people registered include funding dentists to expand surgeries.

Lead director of dental service provision, Catriona Logan, said: "The Department of Health is putting significant amounts of money into this and we are in discussions with them to look at every way we can to improve the dental situation.

"We acknowledge that it's a problem and we are doing everything we can attract new resources and dental staff."

It will be officially opened by Pendle MP Gordon Prentice.