PLANS to charge patients £15 for a dental check-up will deepen the crisis already facing the North-East, Liberal Democrats warned yesterday.

Delegates at Blackpool said the rise from £6.50 - to come in from April next year -would deter people from visiting a dentist.

The increase in the cost of a basic check-up is part of a wider government shake-up of dentistry, involving new contracts.

The £15 charge will entitle each patient to an x-ray, a scrape and polish and advice on oral hygiene, in addition to an examination.

The Department of Health has insisted bills will not rise because most people end for paying for those extra treatments anyway - at £6.50 a time.

But Lib Dem health spokesman Steve Webb told the conference the move would inevitably lead to more people dropping off dentists' lists.

Only 52 per cent of people in County Durham and the Tees Valley were registered at the end of March, according to the latest official figures.

And the proportion was even lower in Sedgefield (41 per cent), Durham and Chester-le-Street (42), Easington (44) and Hartlepool (45).

Mr Webb said: "This is entirely the wrong way to go. We want people to have routine dental check ups, rather than wait until it is too late and then have to pay a fortune for serious work.

"This charge increase will mean that a check up plus a filling will cost £41."