By Venkata Vemuri, London, September 16, 2008 (IANS)

Mary Gilfoyle's teeth were troubling her and her NHS dentist wouldn't see her for another two days. She braved the pain and went shopping, where she had a surprise in store. A freshly enclosed section of the Sainsbury's supermarket in Greater Manchester drew her attention. She went inside and entered Britain's first ever supermarket dentistry. By the time she checked out, the 51-year-old's toothache was gone and she had to pay much less than at her NHS surgery.

She said: "I thought it was brilliant. I have even had a white filling. If I would have been with an NHS dentist that would have cost £55 ($98) - and they couldn't see me for two days". The clinic will be open seven days a week and shoppers will be able to pop in for treatments while buying groceries from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. It is offering check-ups by private dentists for £16 in what could become a clear challenge to the NHS.

Check-ups are 20 pence cheaper than the NHS. Fillings start at £30, while an NHS dentist would charge £45.50, regardless of the number of fillings. Having a tooth removed will cost £50 against the NHS rate of £44.60. Root canal treatment, among the most common malaises, costs £150 pounds against £198 at the NHS. Fancier treatments are more expensive in the private clinic.

The venture comes amid a shortage of NHS dentists, which has already driven 35,000 patients to travel abroad for treatment to countries including Hungary, Poland and Croatia. It is the brainchild of celebrity dentist Lance Knight - whose patients include boxer Amir Khan and models Caprice and Danielle Lloyd - and replaces a dry cleaning shop at a large branch of Sainsbury's in Sale, Greater Manchester.

It follows the first in-store GP surgery, which opened at a nearby Sainsbury's.

Knight claims that in some areas half of the population is not registered with an NHS dentist because of chronic shortages. "This isn't some gimmick, it is about giving something back to the community and putting patients first," he is quoted as saying in the Daily Express. If the pilot surgery succeeds, he would like to roll surgeries out across Britain.

Sainsbury's spokesman David Gilder said: "There is a shortage of dental practices in Britain and the launch of this new service goes some way to providing local people with greater access to dental advice and a range of procedures."

Knight says this could revolutionise dentistry in Britain. New contracts were brought in by the government in 2006 which essentially capped the fees dentists could charge patients for treatment. Many dentists decided to go private as a direct result leading to a massive shortage of NHS dentists nationwide.

The dental crisis led to massive queues of would-be patients stretching down the streets every time a new NHS dentist decided to open up a surgery. A survey last year revealed that almost half of dentists no longer accept NHS patients, with millions left without a dentist because they cannot afford to pay privately. Taking advantage of the shortage, dentists from as far as Hungary began touring the country, offering treatment from mobile surgeries in tents with charges 70% cheaper than other private dentists.