An MP has blasted the Government over its "mishandling" of NHS dentistry in his constituency.

Conservative Nick Herbert, who represents Arundel and South Downs, says people living in rural West Sussex are being let down by health service reorganisation.

Information released by the Health Service shows the number of people registered with an NHS dentist in his constituency fell by 10,000 between 1997 and 2006, as the number of dentists dropped from 29 to 22.

He said: "These figures offer a stark illustration of the Government's mishandling of NHS dentistry.

"It was the Prime Minister himself who promised that everyone would have access to an NHS dentist under this Government and this Government that, ten years ago this week, told the country that they had 24 hours to save the NHS.

"To my constituents, both of these pledges ring very hollow."

Across all of West Sussex, dentist numbers rose by 75 per cent from 1997 to 571 before new NHS contracts were brought in at the end of March 2006.

By December 2006 there were nearly 100 fewer dentists in the county, with 474 working on NHS contracts.

The number of adults registered with NHS dentists fell from 297,128 in 1997 to 253,956 in March 2006.

That number has now risen again to 292,188.

The number of children registered with NHS dentists rose from 105,176 to 115,515 at the end of March 2006. By December 31,126,953 children were registered.

West Sussex PCT told The Argus it has 132 general dental practices and 14 orthodontic practices on NHS contracts.

In the Arundel and South Downs constituency the number of adults registered fell from 26,321 to 16,195 and the number of children from 9,942 to 7,948 between 1997 and March last year.

Mr Herbert's researcher Guy Robinson said the figures showed rural areas like Arundel are suffering compared with towns and cities.

He said: "The big problem is a lot of the dentists have stopped either taking on new patients or are taking on fewer and fewer.

"For the really rural areas it has declined really rapidly."