Dental care standards improve

NHS boards in Scotland are meeting standards to provide out-of-hours emergency dental services, a report has found.

NHS Quality Improvement Scotland (NHS QIS) found that all boards had measures in place to treat patients with dental problems outside normal hours.

NHS Fife – showed evidence of so-called "optimised" services, meaning they had exceptional performance.

Jan Warner, director of patient safety and performance assessment for NHS QIS, said: "Good dental care is critical to our quality of life.

"It is clear that NHS boards have put a lot of work into establishing emergency services and these are now in place across Scotland."

Public health minister Shona Robison said: " It is excellent news that this service has made such good progress."