Emergency dental appointments made with NHS Grampian have fallen to their lowest number in the last five years.
Last year, 5,840 appointments were made with the health board, down from 6,635 in 2014, 7,429 the year before and 9,163 in 2012.
Meanwhile, there was an increase of more than 100% in the number of people signing-up with an NHS dentist between March 2008 and March last year.
Health chiefs have cited that as a major factor in the tumbling emergency appointment figures.
Improved access to dental care means problems are being spotted and treated earlier, reducing the need for emergency work.
An NHS Grampian spokeswoman, said: “For the Grampian area as a whole, in the period March 31, 2008 to March 31, 2015, figures collated by Information Services Division (ISD) Scotland show a 104.53% increase in NHS registered dental patients, from 205,049 to 419,382.
“This represents just over seven out of 10 people in Grampian now registered with an NHS dentist, the highest ever reported rate – 72.4%.
“This is a significant achievement given the historical challenges we faced and given the higher than average number of residents who are treated privately.”
However, the health board said there were still people who were not accessing regular dental care.
The spokesman added: “In addition to recruitment campaigns with NHS practices, NHS Grampian actively promotes the benefits of registration with a dentist to all unregistered patients who attend our emergency dental services and also vulnerable families and their children who require increased support from health services.”
North-east MSP and former deputy health minister Lewis Macdonald said: “Clearly there are still a lot of people who still require emergency access, but given some of that will be out hours then the trend is an encouraging one.”
Mr Macdonald welcomed advice given to help people register with an NHS dentist, and to understand they did not have to turn to private care for treatment.