AN alarming number of people across Great Yarmouth need emergency dental treatment in hospital because of a lack of access to NHS dentists, it was revealed this week.

AN alarming number of people across Great Yarmouth need emergency dental treatment in hospital because of a lack of access to NHS dentists, it has been claimed.

These urgent admissions are a direct result of patients not having an NHS dentist who is normally able to treat them in an emergency, according to the Tories.

New figures extracted by the Conservatives show that in Yarmouth and Waveney, 55 people received emergency dental treatment in hospitals, costing the local NHS an estimated �32,758.

This comes as the latest NHS figures show that 2.6pc of the population across Yarmouth and Waveney have not been seen by an NHS dentist in the last two years.

Prospective parliamentary candidate for the Conservatives, Brandon Lewis, said: 'These figures underline once again the Labour government's appalling failure on NHS dentistry, 2.6pc of people across Yarmouth and Waveney have been unable to see an NHS dentist. It comes as no surprise that 55 people have been forced to hospital last year for emergency dental care - straining our over-stretched A&E departments still further.

'We need to cut out Labour's waste and bureaucracy in NHS dentistry and restore access to an NHS dentist to the million who have lost one under this Government.'

Conservatives have announced a series of reforms to NHS dentistry which they say will improve care including creating new incentives for dentists to spend more time on preventative dental care, improving oral health and reducing long-term costs and restoring access to an NHS dentist to one million people.