THOUSANDS of adults in the borough are risking rotting teeth and oral health problems because of their failure to sign up for NHS dentists.

The warning comes from the director of public health for St Helens Primary Care Trust, Fiona Johnstone She revealed that unlike some areas of the UK, St Helens' NHS dental registers are under subscribed, yet half of the borough's population are not signed up.

Ms Johnstone warned that with oral health in St Helens already poor, those not taking advantage of dental treatment will heighten the problem and are risking their health.

She said: ""People in St Helens have good access to NHS dental treatment, but we do have a fairly low registration rate, actually about 49 per cent (of adults) registered with a dental practitioner.

"It is a good thing people access to NHS dental treatment in St Helens, which is free at point of delivery. St Helens already has relatively poor oral health, so it's not just problems for the future.

"Oral health is really important and not just prevention from having fillings or decay, teeth help with nutrition. You can't chew as easily if you have poor teeth. People who are older and have poor dental health find it difficult to eat things."

The St Helens public's registration rate is three per cent higher than the UK average of 46 per cent, though the national figure is skewed by the lack of NHS provision for dentists in the Southern England.

Nationally 60 per cent of children are registered with NHS dentists, while only 56 per cent of St Helens' youngsters are signed up.

It is unclear how close NHS dentists are to reaching capacity registration, but Ms Johnstone said there is scope for more patients to sign up.

She added: "I think the opportunity is there to register then people should do it, certainly is looking after teeth is something somebody should do."