More than eight out of ten people across Bradford and Airedale who tried to get an appointment with an NHS dentist in the last 12 months were successful.

A Department of Health survey completed by 900 people across the district showed 759 attempted to see a dentist between April 2009 and March this year.

Of those, 652 (86 per cent) were successful, and 91 (12 per cent) could not be seen. The remainder of respondent could not remember the outcome.

Across England, the survey of 147,000 respondents showed 93 per cent of patients could get an appointment, six per cent did not and one per cent could not remember.

The survey, carried out by Ipsos MORI on behalf of the Department of Health, also revealed that 112 called for an urgent appointment, but only 70 per cent were seen.

Included in the respondents were 369 who did not try to see a dentist in the last two years.

Lynne Hollingsworth, head of primary care service development at NHS Bradford and Airedale, said: “Access to NHS dentistry is improving in Bradford and Airedale, and in the past 18 months we have opening three new NHS practices.

“Providing quality dental care for those who need to see an NHS dentist is one of our top priorities, and a fourth NHS dental practice is set to open this autumn, which will see an extra 5,600 patients.

“We have been improving dental services to encourage more people to see a dentist and our figures show that our plan is working.

“In March 2006, 274,00 people had visited a dentist in the previous two years. By last September, that number had risen to almost 286,000.

“These latest figures show that, in the past three months, 12 per cent of people were unsuccessful in getting to see an NHS dentist, compared with 14 per cent two years ago.”

The Government said the national results demonstrated the scale of the challenge it faced to improve patient access.

A Department of Health spokesman said: “The proportion of people seeing an NHS dentist remains below levels before the new dental contract was introduced in March 2006, despite three quarters of a billion pounds extra funding over five years.

“This new data shows that too many people who tried to see an NHS dentist were unable to do so, and many more have simply given up trying.

“This is why we are committed to improving access and providing NHS dental care for at least an additional one million patients on top of those lost as a result of the previous administrations contractual changes.”