OXFORDSHIRE has lost almost 100 NHS dentists since the introduction of controversial new contracts earlier this year.

Rather than increasing the supply of high street dentists as the Government had hoped, the reforms have led to NHS trusts in the county suffering a net loss of 94 dentists in only six months, according to latest figures.

A total of 290 dentists across the county had signed up to the Government's deal by the end of September.

This is down from the 384 NHS dentists registered at the end of March, just before the new contracts came into force in April.

Carlos Clark, 37, one of four dentists who set up a new NHS practice in Wallingford High Street in July, said the surgery now has 6,500 patients with room for a further 5,500.

He works three days a week for the NHS in Wallingford and two days a week on a private basis in Windsor.

He said: "After any change, there is chaos and there was bound to be some movement after the new contracts were introduced.

"I was delighted to be part of this new NHS practice in Wallingford."

Nicky Wadely, spokeswoman for dental services at Oxfordshire Primary Care Trust, said that while some dentists had dropped out of the NHS after the introduction of the new contracts, others had taken on more NHS work.

The new contracts replaced a complex system where dentists charged a separate fee for every filling and extraction, with no incentive to carry out preventative care.

It introduced three fee bands - £15.50 for a check-up, £42.40 for a check-up and filling and £189 for more complex work, such as crowns. But dentists, despite assurances they would earn about £80,000 a year, have complained the deal did not live up to expectations.

The Information Centre for Health and Social Care, which published the figures, cautioned that dentists' NHS commitments varied from practice to practice. It said dentists had grown in number across the country in the last few months.

Heather Barnett, also a spokesman for the Oxfordshire PCT, added: "The two sets of figures cannot be accurately compared.

"Before the new contracts were introduced there were a significant number of dentists in Oxfordshire who were registered to provide NHS dentistry services but who, in reality did very little of this kind of work."