THE dental 'crisis' in Fife is so bad that we risk "going back to the 1930s when people regularly got their teeth taken out at a young age" to avoid hefty treatment bills.

That's the claim of Dunfermline councillor James Calder who said too many residents have been left in pain as they struggle to get an appointment at an NHS surgery.

However, his arguments were dismissed as "ridiculous", "hypocritical" and "completely false" during a debate on his motion at last week's council meeting.

Cllr Calder said: "I will not allow this SNP Scottish Government to erode our NHS dental care with their complete disregard for it without a fight.

"I won't sit down and accept their excuses for doing nothing as this crisis builds and neither will the people of Fife."

He said many dentists are not accepting new NHS patients and "many of those registered have been unable to get appointments, leaving people in pain and causing wider mouth health issues to be missed".

Cllr Calder accused the Scottish Government of "failing to reform the funding structures so that dentists can return to taking on NHS activity and enable more patients to be seen".

He said private care was too expensive and that the number of dental practices in the Kingdom had fallen by 32, adding: "If we're not careful we could see a complete collapse in NHS dentistry and this should alarm all of us."

The SNP said access to NHS dentistry had become harder due to the impact of Brexit and Covid and the funding mechanism criticised by Cllr Calder had been drawn up when Lib Dems shared power at Holyrood.

Cllr Sam Steele said it was "completely false to say Fifers have been left in pain and unable to access dental treatment" and opposition leader David Alexander added: "This is a lazy motion by the Lib Dems.

"Scotland not only has the most dentists per head of population in the UK, by far, we have the best resourced dental service in the UK, by far."

SNP councillor David Barratt said the motion had reminded him to register with an NHS dentist, he said he did so in Inverkeithing without issue and was offered an appointment the following day.

He said: "I don't think anyone's saying there aren't problems but this motion risks blowing them beyond all reasonable proportion.

"The motion was already over the top but the mover's speech really was ridiculous.

"I've no doubt the position is challenging in many areas but from my own experience it's not all doom and gloom."

Labour councillor Mary Lockhart said that, in her own experience, there was "considerable inconsistency" across Fife in terms of access to NHS dental treatment.

She agreed that the NHS service in England was "appalling" but added: "This debate ought to be about what on earth we can do to improve, for our people here in Fife, the dental services that they need and the means by which they can afford to have them."

Cllr Calder's motion, which called on council leader David Ross to write to the Scottish health secretary, Humza Yousaf, and request "urgent action" to tackle the lack of access to NHS dentists, was passed by 39 votes to 31.

He told the Press: "We need action now and I am glad that most councillors in Fife agreed.

"Hopefully we can put the pressure on the SNP to actually do something to solve our dental crisis."