DENTAL surgeries could be opened in North-East schools in an attempt to arrest the region's poor record on tooth decay.

A recent study revealed that Middlesbrough has the highest percentage of people in the region registered with a dentist.

Yet it has the worst levels of tooth decay, with more than half of its five-year-olds suffering from some tooth decay.

In an effort to tackle the problem, officials are looking at plans to include purpose-built dental surgeries in every new school built in the town.

Middlesbrough has recently announced proposals for a school building programme

Middlesbrough Council's health scrutiny panel spent six months studying dental health.

Panel chairman Councillor Eddie Dryden said: "We do have good access to dental services, but sadly, that does not mean we have acceptable levels of dental health. There's a lot of work that has to be done, in the community, in school and in the home, to get people into the right habits as early as possible to improve dental health."

Referring to a plan to build more schools in the town, he said: "We hope it is possible to use this opportunity to link dental and other care facilities with these new developments."

The region's poor record on dental health was reinforced yesterday by a national study.

The British Dental Association (BDA) ranked Easington, in east Durham, in the bottom five in England and Wales for providing dental services, with only one dentist for about every 6,850 residents. The national average is one dental practitioner for every 1,200 people.

More worryingly, only 50 per cent of residents are registered with a dentist.

Ian McFarlane, Easington Primary Care Trust's (PCT) project manager for primary care contracts, said: "The headline figure of a low ratio of dentists to residents is accurate, but the more important measure of performance - access to treatment - is very successful.

"Easington PCT is developing solutions in order to improve services and in particular, ensure that a greater proportion of the residents are registered and have regular dental check-ups."

The survey was carried out by the BDA and measured the number of dentists per 1,000 head of population.

Easington has a population of about 96,000 and 14 dentists.

Mr McFarlane said that any patient registered with a dentist in Easington could arrange an appointment for routine check ups within four to five weeks. A patient in pain could get an emergency appointment within 24 to 48 hours.