Hendy-Gwyn Dental Practice in Whitland, Carmarthen, was a joint proposal from Carmarthenshire and Pembrokeshire Local Health Boards. The Welsh Assembly Government funded the full £906,000 cost of the scheme.

Five dentists will be based at the practice which is operated by Integrated Dental Holdings (IDH) the largest company operating NHS dental practices in the UK.

The company has allowed Local Health Boards to improve service provision in areas where access has been most difficult due to historical lack of dentists, where existing dentists do not have the capacity or where dentists are unwilling to provide NHS care at the expense of their private work.

Dr Gibbons said: "This practice is a vital asset for Carmarthenshire, Pembrokeshire and the surrounding areas.

"It is encouraging to see what a positive difference it has made through the introduction of the pilot Personal Dental Service Schemes that we made available to all practitioners in April 2005."

"It is a fine example of what local commissioning arrangements under the new dental contract can delive. Tthis can only be good news for all concerned."

Personal Dental Service Schemes allow dentists to treat patients more as individuals, concentrating on preventative and quality treatment work and break the present treadmill where dentists are paid a wide range of different fees for each procedure they carry out.

There are 1,087 dentists in Wales compared with 975 when the National Assembly was established. More than 1.4m people are registered with an NHS dentist in Wales.

The total spend on NHS dentistry for 2004 - 2005 was some £81 million, compared with £76 million in 2003-04. The forecast spend for 2005-06 is £88 million and £118 million for 2006-7. An additional £30 million will be invested in NHS dentistry in 2006/07 - this represents an increase in the net spend in dentistry of over 89% since the Assembly was established in 1999.

From September 2004 the number of dental undergraduate places in Wales increased by 17 per cent. Vocational training places in Wales will also increase from 55 to 65 this year.