A Suffolk town is set to lose its final dental practice, forcing frustrated patients to driving miles to find another.

mydentist in Leiston is the final dental practice in the town following the closure of the Bupa practice last year.

Now, however, patients have been disappointed to find out that the practice, located on the town's High Street, will also be closing its doors for good.

mydentist is a national chain of practices and has other branches in Ipswich, Bury St Edmunds, Sudbury and Woodbridge.

More than 5,000 people live in Leiston and they will now have to find new practices in other parts of East Suffolk.

News of the closure comes almost exactly a year after the Bupa practice in the town announced that it would be shutting due to a lack of dentists.

At the time a representative for Bupa said that it had "long struggled to recruit dentists in the area" and that despite it's best efforts the practice would have to close.

It said that the case of the practice's closure was symptomatic of recruitment problems more generally in the industry.

The branch shut its doors in March 2020 with patients being asked to go to their next closest branch in Colchester or find another NHS practice.

A member of staff at mydentist Leiston was able to confirm the closure of the site but was not able to confirm why the branch was closing.

mydentist was contacted for further comment.

Suffolk Coastal MP Therese Coffey said she was disappointed by the news of the practice's closure and said she would continue to look into the situation.

“I’m extremely disappointed to hear of the forthcoming closure of (My)Dentist in Leiston," said Dr Coffey.

"I recently met the Head of Commissioning for NHS England, David Barter to discuss NHS dentist provision in Suffolk Coastal and share my concerns.

"He assures me that NHS England is developing a new Dental Strategy for the East of England to try and tackle the problem and I will keep pressing the case on behalf of constituents.”