TODDLERS are to be given free toothpaste and toothbrushes every four months in a bid to tackle East Lancashire's decay crisis.

Dental workers have been told to hunt out two-year-olds not registered at dentists by attending playgroups, nurseries and Sure Start centres and handing out the free tooth kits.

The move comes after new figures revealed 60per cent of children in one East Lancashire borough have more than five teeth decayed, missing or filled -- by the age of FIVE.

That figure has placed Blackburn with Darwen in the worst 10 primary care trust areas in the country for tooth decay.

It also means Blackburn with Darwen is the only one of East Lancashire's three Primary Care Trust areas to have a higher percentage of children suffering tooth decay than three years ago.

Health bosses have now instructed staff to make contact with all of Blackburn with Darwen's nurseries and playgroups to find children not registered with dentists.

They will also visit Sure Start centres, based in the some of the poorest parts of the borough, to support families in ensuring children grow up with strong teeth. Experts believe virtually every child in the borough passes through a playgroup, nursery or Sure Start centre at some point.

Staff will then issue children with toothpaste and toothbrushes once every four months, and help parents get children registered.

At the moment though, no dentists in Blackburn with Darwen are registering new patients.

Dr Gary Whittle, director of dental health at the East Lancashire Public Health Network, made up of the three PCTs in the area, said: "Targeting all nurseries and playgroups is vital to instil a preventative dental health routine and culture at this young age, and will improve the dental health of all children who feed into the borough primary schools.

"Project workers will enforce a dental health culture through regular education sessions and by distributing toothpaste and toothbrush packs every four months."

Like other areas of East Lancashire, Blackburn with Darwen has suffered a chronic shortage of dental places as many practices go private.

Despite funding 20,000 new dental places at two new practices in Blackburn town centre this year, no dentists in the borough are registering new patients at the moment.

That means roughly 7,000 fewer people are registered at the moment in the borough than in the late 1990s, when 87,000 were.

Dr Whittle said: "A dentist and dental nurse will be made available one day a week for those children who are not already registered with a dentist.

"The project worker will help to identify those children who need to access dental treatment, whilst posters and leaflets will help to advertise the service to parents."

Earlier this year, the Lancashire Evening Telegraph revealed children in primary schools were getting lessons on how to brush their teeth after half of children claimed not to own a toothbrush.

In Burnley, Pendle and Rossendale, exactly half of five-year-olds have decayed, missing or filled teeth. Each has an average of 4.55 damaged, compared with 59per cent with an average of 4.37 in 2002.

In Hyndburn and Ribble Valley, 49.5 per cent of children had damaged teeth, averaged 4.61 each. That compares with 56.7per cent found to have problems in 2002, with 4.71 teeth damaged each.

The figures comes from a study carried out by the British Association for the Study of Community Dentistry, based on research done by PCTs.

Dr Whittle added: "When we visited schools in 2002 we looked at a small sample of children but when we visited in 2004 we looked at all children so the 20034 data is very accurate.

"However, it is very disappointing that the dental health of this age group has worsened while in Burnley, Pendle and Rossendale PCT and in Hyndburn and Ribble Valley PCT it has improved.

"We hope this project will reduce the number of children with decay to 40per cent by 2007, with an average of 1.9 teeth decayed."

Coun Maureen Bateson, executive member for social services at Blackburn with Darwen Council, said: "This is a very important issue for us which is why we have made it a top priority.

"We want to give children the best start in life possible and that is is why we are working with the PCT on this."