DENTAL services in the North-east received a desperately needed boost yesterday as the first students arrived at the new Aberdeen Dental School.
The Scottish Government and NHS Grampian are investing £21 million in the training facility to combat the area's chronic shortage of NHS dentists.
More than 25,000 patients are estimated to be on the waiting list for an NHS dentist in the Grampi
an area, where less than 30 per cent of adults are currently registered with the NHS.
The government has already agreed to waive tuition fees for students at Aberdeen, saving the dental undergraduates £7,100 over the four years of the course. And a range of incentives is being offered to the students at the new dental school to remain in the North-east after they graduate.
This year's students are beginning their studies in a building at NHS Grampian's Foresterhill hospital complex, but work has started on the new Aberdeen Dental School building, due to be completed in October next year.
The state-of-the-art complex will have facilities for radiography, restorative dentistry, consultant orthodontics and laboratories.
Shona Robison, Scotland's public health minister, visited Foresterhill yesterday to welcome the first intake of 15 students. She explained that, after the first-year intake, the centre was set to produce 20 qualified dentists every year, providing a significant increase in the numbers of trained practitioners entering the profession in Scotland.
Ms Robison said: "The new Aberdeen Dental School will be a centre of excellence for the north of Scotland and an important asset for the whole country.
"Today's opening proves how serious we in the Scottish Government are about reversing the long-term decline in NHS dentistry in Scotland.
"The North-east is an area where there has been a historic under-supply of dentists and long waiting lists. It is something we are determined to tackle, and the third dental school being in Aberdeen will go a long way to doing that."
She added: "Young dentists who train at the dental school will provide a significant boost to the numbers of trained practitioners in our country, helping to bring NHS dentistry within reach of more and more people.
"We want as many people as possible to have access to an NHS dentist, because we know good oral health is a key component of general health and wellbeing. For that reason, we have realised this key manifesto pledge quickly.
"In the 60th anniversary year of NHS Scotland, this is a fitting monument to our determination to ensure that everyone in Scotland has access to good quality healthcare – and this must include dentistry."
The curriculum will initially be administered by Dundee University Dental School, but will be managed jointly by Dundee and Aberdeen universities.
Professor Stephen Logan, the senior vice-principal at Aberdeen University, said: "
The University of Aberdeen Dental School is a tremendously important development in relation to dental education and dental service provision for Aberdeen and the north-east of Scotland."
The full article contains 504 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
