Thousands of people are putting their health at risk by not going to see an NHS dentist.

New figures reveal almost 20,000 fewer people are getting treatment since a controversial system of charging was introduced.

The change led to many dentists abandoning the NHS and going private, making it more difficult for patients to find one.

However health bosses say figures are gradually improving overall and that many more new NHS dentists have opened up throughout the county over the past year.

Figures published by the NHS Information Centre show the number of patients getting treatment in Brighton and Hove fell from 154,846 in the two years to March 2006, when the old dental contract system ended, to 147,402 in the two years up to June this year.

In West Sussex, the numbers fell from 420,767 to 418,588.

East Sussex Downs and Weald also reported a fall, from 184,724 to 175,109.

Hastings and Rother was the only area to buck the trend, showing a small rise in numbers from 103,412 to 104,649.

The number of dentists providing services has either stayed the same or risen over the past two-and-a-half years and the number of courses of treatment have also gone up.

Sussex health bosses say patients still believe it is difficult to see an NHS dentist despite that fact there are now a lot more of them around.

A spokesman for the two East Sussex primary care trusts said: “We have been working hard to increase the number of people visiting a NHS dentist regularly to help improve everyone’s oral health.

“We have already commissioned many new NHS dental services across the county, with 50 NHS dental practices in East Sussex accepting new NHS patients.

“Four more new NHS practices are due to start providing services later this year, and a number of others are already up and running.”

West Sussex announced this week it was investing an extra £1.5 million in dental services, giving more than 20,000 people the chance to get treatment.

The new national dentistry contracts came into force in April 2006, putting primary care trusts in charge of commissioning local services.

The system replaced the old method of having hundreds of separate patient charges with three simplified bands.

The aim was to give local NHS authorities the power to provide NHS dentists in places where it was difficult to get an appointment.

However many dentists were unhappy with the switch from payment per item to an annual income for a predetermined amount of treatment and left the NHS altogether.