£100,000 per year, I'm 55yrs old with a 2:1 in Mechanical engineering, I earn a quarter of that. I've worked in manufacturing all my life paid full tax and NI (are dentists and doctors on PAYE you can bet your life there not)
I live in south liverpool where the majority of dentists have gone private. I was quoted £19.95 per month by Denplan.
that was two years ago. I've registered with two dentists since (the first went private within 6 months)
Interesting that when I was with the first dentist I was advised to come to the hygienist 3 times a year. I had a checkup at my current NHS dentist when I registered, I fully expected a clean however was told it was not necessary. Thats one year and counting since my last clean, mind you I still payed the £15.50 for a 7minute check.
The last time I had any dental work other than a cleanup was over 4 years ago. £240 for a years Denplan cover BDA Denplan and dentists are having a laugh.

Chris Brown, Liverpool,

Bry Barnes does not deserve to have a local NHS dentist. No doubt when the local dentist has finally downgraded to a Lada and been forced to go private he will be happy. The only real problem with the old contract was the money. So the Labour government changed everything except the money. The government should have provided a properly funded service for those in exempt categories. Instead, for ideological reasons, they insist on a third world service for everyone. The government did to dentists what they would have liked to have done to GPs. For example, when a dentist sells his business, built up over years of loyal service to the NHS, s(he) used to be able to sell the goodwill. Now the government has effectively stolen that goodwill and can transfer it to the lowest bidder. Fair?

Ian , London, UK

I am a registered dental hygienist in the US but have lived in the UK for over 12 years (and yes, I do pay taxes and NI). I am appalled at the standard of NHS dentistry. The dentists' hands are pretty much tied by the system and are often forced to provide care that is not in the best interest of the patient (i.e. pulling a tooth instead of doing a root canal and saving the tooth). I initially registered with an NHS dentist but was so appalled by the type of care I received (that was governed more by regulations than actual good dental practice) that I soon found a very good private dentist and joined a dental plan.

Lwaxana, London, UK

This really just shows what a lot of nonsense having a centrally-planned service always is, rather than having one paid directly by its customers. When dentists are wholly private they have to satisfy their individual customers to do well. Under the NHS they have to satisfy a lot of artificial measures and moving targets in a huge bureaucracy.
Whether it be dental work, medical consultation, or surgery, the NHS is vastly inferior to what is provided by the private sector. I know so many cases of friends, relatives and even myself coming close to death as a result of NHS incompetence. This latest debacle is one more reason for abolishing the NHS entirely. Some kind of state-funded insurance would be needed for the poor, but I am sure everyone could have much better care than is currently available to those who use the NHS.

Alan, London, England

The UDA system is such that it fails to take into account the variation in complexity of dental treatment provided. For example, a dentist would achieve the same UDA score for a patient requiring a single crown as a patient who requires 6 fillings, root canal treatment and one crown. Clearly, a greater volume of healthcare would have been provided for the latter patient, but there is no corresponding rise in UDA to show for it. How, therefore, can the UDA system reliably reflect the amount of healthcare dentists are actually providing in relation to meeting targets?

T L, Kent,

Oh dear!

Means my local NHS Dentist might have to get rid of one of their 2 brand new Porsche Boxters and might have to downgrade the new Range Rover Sport as well.

Hard times ahead indeed.

Bry Barnes, Somerset, Uk

Another "Target debacle" ruled over by this government! "Targets, targets, targets" should have been Blair's sound-bite when he came to government, not "education, education, education". This is why the NHS is not making headway when it has money pouring into it - there is a whole industry in government (and the NHS etc) just to set and measure targets.

B. Cox, cambridge, uk

GPs met the targets set by their new contract and saw their pay being cut in the form of a reduction in pension.
If dentists had hit their targets one wonders if the government would have clawed back the pay in other ways on the grounds of 'affordability'

john phillips, edinburgh,

I have found my NHS Dentist seriously substandard. On a recent visit to the US I visited a dentist to check a toothache I had. He found 6 cavities after taking x-rays and I said I would have them filled when I return to the UK. The first thing I did when I was in my dentists office in the UK was tell him I had 6 cavities, and with my x-rays in hand I figured he would see what the US doctor had seen. To my surprise, all he did was 'count' my uppers and lowers and tell me everything looked fine! No cavities! And this was without even bothering to look at the x-rays. I asked him how it was possible, since I was sure cavities do not disappear. His response was that my teeth were 'perfect' and no other work was necessary, not even a cleaning! In the future I will be going back to the US to have all my dental surgeries and cleaning, I am happy to pay to get the service I require, instead of hurried out of the door within 4 minutes to attend to his quota of clients!

Courtney, spalding, UK

Like everything else in this country - the Government interferes and it collapses. We spend millions of taxpayers money training these dentists. Why can't we just pay them a salary and let them treat those taxpayers? Why are we obsessed with targets and measurement? Will we have league tables of who pulled the most teeth next?

Steve, London, UK