Health bosses are preparing to take the wraps off a £2million dental suite at Fraserburgh.
The long-awaited centre is expected to treat 5,000 patients and will save people having to make regular journeys to and from Aberdeen for appointments.
The complex, on land at Fraserburgh Hospital, was first announced six years ago, but the project was delayed several times because of a lack of funding.
It was eventually revived as part of a £67million spending programme drawn up by health chiefs in 2011.
Tomorrow, the 22,240sqft base at Lochpots Road – named the Faithlie Dental Centre – will be formally opened by NHS Grampian’s director of public health, Sir Lewis Ritchie.
Professor Ritchie is originally from Fraserburgh and has been a GP at Peterhead for more than 30 years.
Local councillor Ian Tait, who was involved in talks with NHS Grampian bosses about the project, said the service would help improve waiting times.
“I am very pleased to see it will be opened by a local man,” he added.
Five dentists will work out of the £1.8million centre. Two will be employed directly by the health service, working exclusively on NHS patients.
Three other dentists will come from David Shaw Associates, which has a surgery in Frithside Street.
They will treat both NHS and private patients. The new centre will increase the number of dentists in the town by three.
Recent figures showed thousands of people in Aberdeenshire travelled to Aberdeen for dental appointments. Plans for the Fraserburgh centre were first discussed several years ago after it emerged that the north-east was one of the worst areas in Scotland for NHS dental provision.