article_snippet.sent: Britain's five highest-earning NHS dentists are paid average salaries of £690,000 a year.
article_snippet.sent: A further 11 dentists were paid between £400,000 and £500,000 and a total of 177 received more than £200,000.
article_snippet.sent: The figures lay bare the huge amounts of taxpayers’ money paid to dentists for NHS work, following Labour’s introduction of controversial contracts in 2006.
article_snippet.sent: Lucrative: Some dentists earn from multiple NHS contracts, as well as private patients .
article_snippet.sent: Under freedom of information laws, the NHS Business Services Authority was asked about the pensionable pay of dentists who do NHS work.
article_snippet.sent: People will be shocked to hear the sums lining dentists’ pockets when This is almost impossible to find dental care on the NHS NHS in some parts of the country.
article_snippet.sent: yet it is so difficult to get dental treatment on it.
article_snippet.sent: The contracts brought in by Labour were designed to improve access to NHS dentistry.
article_snippet.sent: Treatments are divided into three bands, from a simple check-up earning the dentist £25, to procedures such as fitting dentures and crowns, for roughly £300.
article_snippet.sent: The value of a contract can run to millions of pounds, and some dentists run more than one practice so hold multiple contracts.
article_snippet.sent: According to the Health and Social Care Information Centre, 21,500 dentists did NHS work in 2012/13, but most also do substantial amounts of private work.
article_snippet.sent: The British Dental Association’s Mick Armstrong said the top-earning dentists ‘most likely own a group of practices’ or are specialists in the top-earning dentists area.
article_snippet.sent: A spokesman for NHS England said NHS England contracts the vast majority of dental services from self-employed individuals or companies, some of whom
highlights_snippet.sent: Highest-earning NHS dentists earn almost five times more than Prime Minister’s £142,500 pay packet .
  
highlights_snippet.sent: A further 11 dentists were paid between £400,000 and £500,000 a year .
  
highlights_snippet.sent: Lay bare huge amounts of taxpayer money paid to dentists for NHS work .
  