Connecting to MySQL with SSH Tunnel? Would this be a good/secure workaround?

Hello,

I know that directly connecting to a MySQL database on internet is not a good idea, but if we use a SSH Tunnel (like Putty or Chilkat ActiveX) would this be a secure solution?
So that we don't need to rewrite the whole legacy app codded in vb6 to use webservices?

Do you have any experiences with this SSH tunneling?

Thanks,
Davor