A Prestonpans dental practice is celebrating its tenth anniversary at its purpose-built location.

Family Dental Care East Lothian was founded in 1977, when Chris Price took over the practice at 97 High Street. Charlie Crummey joined him in 1979, with the practice growing steadily ever since – and it opened a state-of-the art facility on High Street, next to Lidl, in September 2013.

Boasting 10 surgeries and a large team of surgeons, nurses and administrative staff, the practice continues to thrive – recently adding two new dentists to help keep up with demand.

Mr Crummey, partner and principal dental surgeon, said: “We went from being a two-surgery practice on the High Street – myself and then partner had this idea, because we were having another NHS dentist crisis [at the time], that rather than sit back, why don’t we try and do something about it?

“It’s very satisfying that we’re still going because we are having our battles with the NHS – and the reason dentists are leaving the NHS in their droves is because they’re not getting a very good deal.

“We had this vision of building this brand-new practice, which came to pass in September 2013.

“So we dedicated ourselves to always being able to take on NHS patients – which we are still doing.”

Mr Crummey has now retired from clinical work but stressed his passion for continuing to provide excellent NHS care to the community.

Currently, about 90 per cent of the practice’s patients are NHS and, with about 19,000 on the books, it is still looking to entice more patients.

He said: “I’m retired from clinical work now but I came to the practice in 1979.

“We have been serving the local community since then as an NHS practice and it was our intention to keep doing so.

“We didn’t want to go down the private route and we didn’t want a sort of ‘half and half’.

“There are still some things you can only do privately but we’re roughly 90 per cent NHS and we still take on new patients.

“We get new patients phoning multiple times a day – we’ve got about 19,000 patients at the moment and we still think we can take on a few more thousand.”

When asked what the team’s plans were to celebrate the milestone, he was not quite sure.

He said: “We don’t know! We can’t hold a party for 20,000 patients! But we’d like to thank all of our patients who stuck with us through Covid.”

He added that every member of staff had been part of the success over the years and he thanked them for their hard work and dedication.

For those who are looking for a dentist on the NHS, Mr Crummey encouraged them to get in touch.

Martin Whitfield, South Scotland MSP, said: “Family Dental Care East Lothian is an important facility which provides an effective and accessible service for local residents. I know that when the new building was established in 2013 it was futureproofed to ensure it could expand and meet the needs of the growing local population.

“That has proved to be the case and it’s great that the practice continues to accept new NHS patients. I’m pleased to add my thanks to Charlie Crummey and his team for all they do and wish them continued success in the future.”