Commenting on today’s publication of ISD Scotland statistics, which show that the number of dentists working in NHS General, Community and Hospital Dental Services has increased by 2.7 per cent, from 2,842 in 2006 to 2,919 in 2007, Robison said she hoped that increasing the numbers of dentists in training and opening a third dental school for Scotland in Aberdeen will further increase these numbers. 

In addition, the statistics show that 69.9 per cent of children and 48.6 per cent of adults were registered with NHS General Dental Services in Scotland in September 2007, compared with 67.5 per cent and 46.5 per cent respectively in June the same year. 

Robison said: "Today's figures are really encouraging and I am very pleased that more people are now registered with an NHS dentist than have been for a number of years.  

"The Scottish Government is absolutely committed to widening access to NHS dentistry. 

"But I am not complacent - I know there is still much more to be done and some parts of Scotland still have problems with access to an NHS dentist.”

However, she said she is confident that the strategies the government has in place, new developments such as the Aberdeen Dental School, giving NHS boards the authority to appoint directly salaried dentists and outreach training centres in Aberdeen, Inverness and Dumfries and Galloway will continue to drive improvements.  

However, Mary Scanlon MSP, Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Health & Wellbeing, said that despite the small rises shown in the recent figures, compared with figures from 2000 the situation has not improved for children and has got worse for adults.

She continued: “Despite the very small rise in registrations for the most recent figures, we still have a third of all children and over half of adults not registered with a dentist. It is a disgraceful state of affairs.

She says that while the previous Executive did little to encourage dentists who have left the health service to return or to prevent them from leaving in the first place, the new government has also been “extraordinarily quiet” on dentistry.

She said: “Rather than grasp the bull by the horns, the new SNP minority Government has been extraordinarily quiet on dentistry. There was no mention of this subject when the Government published its legislative programme in September. In fact, Shona Robison’s comments today are the first we’ve heard for quite some time.

“Scottish Conservatives want to work with dentists to end the current crisis, and give families access to the dental care they pay for through their taxes. This crisis in dentistry was not of the minority government’s making, but is theirs to sort out.”

You can view the dental statistics here