Councillor Buckle says patients can have cheaper care in Cherbourg

Bernard Buckle has organised a trip for 50 Isle of Wight residents to have treatment in Cherbourg.

Mr Buckle has charged each patient �120 for two-nights accommodation, travel and medium-level dental treatment.

He came up with the idea - dubbed the Tooth Ferry - to help those unable to find a NHS dentist or afford the costs of treatment with a private one.

What we need is more dentists on the Isle of Wight - not patients going off to another country Primary care trust Chief Executive David Crawley

Only 26 dentists on the Isle of Wight now offer NHS treatment and they are currently not taking on new patients.

Mr Buckle says private dentists would charge around �40 for a consultation as opposed to the �17 charged by a dentist he knows in Cherbourg.

But the councillor, who himself needs three front teeth replaced and has to liquidise his cornflakes, will not be able to enjoy the benefits of his own idea.

Mr Buckle, who plans to lead the trip in six weeks time, told BBC News Online: "The treatment I need is more complicated than the routine treatment I plan to get done for island people there."

But primary care trust Chief Executive David Crawley said the idea was not a proper solution to the problem of recruiting NHS dentists on the island.

'Isolated incidents'

Mr Crawley said: "What we are interested in as a primary care trust is finding a long-term sustainable solution to this.

"What we need is more dentists on the Isle of Wight - not patients going off to another country."

A spokesman for the British Dental Association said: "We have seen isolated incidents of people travelling to Hungary for dental treatment on the basis that it is cheaper than in the UK.

"So there's clearly a precedent."

He added that costs among private dentists varied widely across the country.