Patients at a Didcot dental practice can now watch films while having a filling - on plasma screens installed on the ceiling.

The Smile Dental Practice in Broadway has had a £250,000 refit to make the dreaded trip to the dentist a thing of the past. Most of the cash was spent on state-of-the-art clinical equipment, but no expense has been spared when it comes to patient comfort.

The screens on the ceilings and chairs mean patients can watch TV as work is carried out.

The screens are also linked to digital cameras that can film inside patients mouths - allowing dentists to show patients still and moving images and explain treatments.

Other improvements include X-rays being replaced by a digital scanner, which is faster and reduces radiation exposure by 90 per cent. There are also plasma screens in the new waiting room and corridors, and a new refreshment area has been added.

Smile has 12,000 private patients and provides NHS treatment to 2,000 children and adults with exemptions.Practice owner Gareth McAleer said the improvements were aimed at relaxing patients and the entertainment also had health benefits.

He said: "The impact has been amazing with people already. They are far more relaxed in the practice. If you are more at ease, you are more likely to come in for check-ups. If patients feel relaxed in the chair we can give them advice and they take that on board.

"They walk away now with a better experience."

He added: "We have people coming here in their 80s who have been coming here since they were kids - the practice is 80 years old now. This refurbishment will take it up to its 100th birthday."