Lanarkshire residents have been full of praise for student dentists and nurses who put smiles back on their faces.

They have been beneficiaries of a unique initiative at NHS Lanarkshire’s Dental Outreach Centre in the Buchanan Centre, Coatbridge, which gives people not registered with a dentist the chance to get a course of dental treatment absolutely free.

Since launched five years ago, over 2000 people have received free treatment, and the centre is now appealing for new patients to come forward.

Those eligible get a free course of supervised treatment from the student dentists and dental hygienists/therapists in their final year of training, in one of the modern well equipped Buchanan Centre’s 14 state of the art dental surgeries.

Arthur McLaughlin, 71, from Coatbridge said: “I needed new teeth so when I heard about this opportunity it was a no brainer for me.

“It’s made such a huge difference to my smile and makes me feel a lot better as well.”

Elizabeth Jorgensen, 70, from Coatbridge, said: “When my daughter told me about this, I decided to find out more.

“It’s the best thing I’ve done because it’s given me the confidence to smile for the first time in years.”

Alison Murdoch, 41, from Wishaw, said: “I saw a poster for the outreach centre in my GP surgery and got in touch.

“It was fantastic and I can only say the dentist had healing hands as they gave me my smile back.”

One of the senior dentists at the Outreach Centre, Paul Hazlett, said: “As it’s final year students who carry out treatment, appointment times take slightly longer than normal and patients may not have as much treatment as they may expect in a general dental practice.

“However, the treatment is carried out to a high standard as experienced dentists will be supervising all the work.”

To be eligible you must be over 16-years-old and not be registered with a dentist.

For more information call 01236 703460.