Dentists receive a payment per patient

The Dental Board for England and Wales released data on the top 50 earners under the Freedom of Information Act.

The surgeries are not named - but the highest earner, which employed 26 dentists and brought in �2.2m in 2004-05, was in the West Midlands.

The British Dental Association said the figures did not include the costs of running a practice, and said an average dentist earns around �80,000.

A distinction needs to be drawn between the gross income for practices and the net income for individual dentists British Dental Association spokeswoman

Dentists' income is made up of fees from treatments, called items of service, and payments for the number of children and adults registered at their practice.

In addition, dentists who own premises and provide rooms for others to operate in also receive a proportion of the renting dentists' income.

And dentists who carry out work on the NHS, instead of privately, receive 'commitment payments' as a reward.

'Bricks and mortar' upkeep

The Dental Board figures showed the second highest earning practice, in Kent, which had nine dentists, took in just under �2m - around �222,222 each.

And a practice with two principal dentists and nine associates in West Yorkshire made �1.6m.

There is a cap of �384 on any one procedure carried out on the NHS, but there is virtually no limit on the amount of work a practice can carry out.

A spokesperson for the British Dental Association said: "A distinction needs to be drawn between the gross income for practices and the net income for individual dentists.

"From these gross fees practice owners must cover practice costs, such as staff salaries, upkeep of equipment and the bricks and mortar of the practice itself.

"Larger practices - whether NHS or private or, as is more common, a combination of both - will see greater numbers of patients and, as a result, will generate larger numbers of fees.

"On average, a full-time dentist with high commitment to the NHS will earn around �80,000 per year."

End to 'drill and fill'

A spokeswoman for the Department of Health said: "Dentists in general practice are not generally salaried, but their income depends on the number of items of service they provide and the number of patients, child and adult, they look after."

A new contract for dentists is set to be brought in next April. It was designed to put an end to the "drill and fill" culture of NHS dentistry.

But leading dentists have said they are unhappy with a new payment banding system, and warn the changes may lead many to quit the NHS altogether.

More than a third of English dentists' work is carried out privately - up from about a tenth 15 years ago.