THE first 30 dental students have graduated from the University of Central Lancashire’s £5.25million School of Dentistry.

The school was set up by the Cumbria and Lancashire Medical and Dental Consortium, in partnership with primary care trusts including Blackburn with Darwen and NHS East Lancashire, to help tackle a shortage in dental care.

Thousands of people in East Lancashire are waiting for a dentist despite several new practices being set up in Accrington, Burnley, Pendle and Rossendale in the last year - providing more than 25,000 new NHS dentistry places.

It is hoped the new students will help fill the gap.

The UCLan school is the first to pioneer a new model of dental education in which students gain their experience in community Dental Education Centres (DECs) rather than city centre hospitals during their four-year course.

The DECs, including one in Accrington, were established in areas of high need and poor dental health, where access to NHS dentistry is limited, partly due to difficulties in attracting qualified dentists.

Matt Goodall, 24, trained in Accrington and will start work at Bateman and Best Dental Practice in Darwen on Monday.

He said: “I was excited to be part of a new way of teaching that was more patient focused.”

Twenty one of the graduates have secured 12-month mandatory training places in the North West.

Matt will work as a vocational dental practitioner in Blackburn Road, calling on the expertise and advice of trainer Mike Best.

He said: “It’s a very good, ethical practice that serves a high need area.

“I feel like we’re helping out, and that’s the best thing about it.”

Former audiologist Ruth Thornton, 34, also trained in Accrington and is now working at Quest Dental Care in Burnley.

She said: “Having worked for a number of years and given birth to two children I loved the experience of learning new skills and being a student again.”

UCLan’s dental school is said to have one of the most sophisticated ‘phantom head’ rooms in Europe, where students learn their skills on simulators before progressing to patients, and high-tech video conference equipment connecting students and lecturers.

Professor Lawrence Mair, head of UCLan School of Dentistry, said: “Clinical experience has been at the root of our approach because dentistry is a skill and skills develop through practice.”