People in Northumberland and South Tyneside are most reluctant to go to the dentist, NHS reveals 

Anyone familiar with TV’s Auf Wiedersehen, Pet or scantily clad revellers in Newcastle’s Bigg Market in the depths of winter will know that they breed them tough in the North East.

But Geordies turn to jelly at the sound of a dentist’s drill, a new NHS survey reveals. 

While six per cent of people across England admit to feeling an aversion to the dentist, that figure is nine per cent in Northumberland and 14 per cent in South Tyneside, the highest figure in the country. 

It may be some consolation that the ‘Mackems’ of nearby Sunderland aren’t much better, with 12 per cent admitting to being fearful of a spell in the dentist’s chair. 

The results emerged from a GP patient survey of 250,000 published on the NHS England website. 

Those who had not tried to make a dental appointment in the past two years were asked why. When the figures were broken down by gender, women in South Tyneside ranked highest for citing fear (18 per cent), slightly more than Sunderland (14 per cent). 

For men, the corresponding figures were 13 per cent and ten per cent respectively. 

However, there were other areas where more men admitted not liking dentists: Bassetlaw in Nottinghamshire (14 per cent), Hull and Warwickshire North (both 13 per cent). 

For women, dentist dodgers were concentrated in Cannock Chase, Staffordshire, and South Sefton in Liverpool (both 14 per cent) and Bassetlaw, Dudley and Walsall (all 13 per cent). 

By contrast, Westminster at only two per cent was the lowest area for disliking the dentist’s chair, along with Hammersmith and Surrey Heath.