Some areas have seen people queue to register for NHS treatment

The Dental Action Plan is intended as an incentive to lure back dentists who have moved away from the NHS.

Talks between the government and dentists aimed at helping to solve the dental crisis ended without agreement.

Dentists rejected terms forcing them to treat a required number of adults on the NHS before receiving the money.

Thousands of people have been forced to re-register as private patients after their dental practice opted out of the health service.

In March, Deputy Health Minister Lewis Macdonald pledged an extra 200 dentists by 2008 and an investment of an extra �295m over three years.

My concern is that the deputy minister at the moment seems to think it should be all or nothing Andrew Lamb British Dental Association

Mr Macdonald said dentists must be committed to providing NHS treatment to adults, as well as children, if they were to receive financial help from the executive.

The British Dental Association, however, said that its members who had stopped offering NHS treatment to adult patients should still benefit from the Dental Action Plan.

National director Andrew Lamb suggested that varying levels of payment could reflect the level of commitment by dentists prepared to treat adults on the health service.

"I don't think it should be all or nothing," he said. "My concern is that the deputy minister at the moment seems to think it should be all or nothing.

Sliding scale

"We have discussed with the Scottish Executive the possibility of having a sliding scale and would like to think that possibility is still on the agenda.

"The majority of dentists in Scotland either work fully on the NHS or treat a mixture of private and NHS patients.

"Those mixed practices treat adult-exempt and children by and large.

"It is not true to say that those dentists who are working in a mixed economy are not treating adult patients - they are."

Lewis Macdonald: Underlined value of deal on offer

But after the discussions ended on Wednesday, the minister repeated his message that the payments on offer were a good deal.

"It means for the typical dental general practitioner an increase in their income as a result of remaining with the NHS of tens of thousands of pounds," Mr Macdonald said.

"It's a very significant increase indeed and we will press on with this."

He added: "We can provide incentives for dentists to stick with the NHS, to remain loyal to their patients, and at the same time provide disincentives for dentists leaving the NHS and putting patients out on the street.

"They will not have access to those new monies. That is a very clear message and I think dentists across Scotland will get the message."