In the Tayside health board area — one of the best in Scotland for registrations — more than 126,000 people don’t have a dentist. In Fife, one of the worst areas, 166,000 people — almost half the population — don’t have access to regular dental care.

Whilst Tayside has the fourth-highest proportion of people registered with an NHS dentist at 67.9%, the rate of new child registrations is amongst the slowest in the country.

Tayside betters the nationwide registration average in all but two of the 11 age categories listed. When it comes to new Tayside registrations for children aged 3-5, the 10.9% increase recorded since December, 2007, is the second-lowest of the 14 health board areas.

Although the number of NHS dentists operating in Tayside has been increasing over the past few years, again the rise is amongst the lowest in the country.

Fife health board is well behind the Scottish average for registrations at all ages with just over half the population (53.8%) signed up with a dental practice.

Starting from a much lower base, Fife has managed to increase registrations for 3-5-year-olds by 15.8% since December, 2007. The rise in NHS dentists operating in the Kingdom’s health board area over the same period almost exactly matched that increase.

Across Scotland as a whole, the proportion of adults registered with a dentist is 61.3% and for children, 80.1%. That’s an increase from 78.7% for children and 59.3% for adults at December 31 last year.

The number of children registered with an NHS dentist has risen to its highest ever level, soliciting praise from public health minister Shona Robison.

The Dundee East MSP said, “This is testament to the success programmes like Childsmile and our schools-based dental service are having in getting children signed up with a dentist.

“We know children’s oral health is improving and the most recent national dental inspection programme survey shows the dental health of primary one pupils in Scotland has reached the highest levels ever recorded.

“The rise in the number of dentists working in the NHS also shows that the hard work we have done to make working in the NHS as attractive as possible has paid off.

“These figures are good news, but we are not complacent — we know that more work needs to be done to increase access to NHS dentistry and improve oral health. That is why we are continuing our child oral health initiatives and doing all we can to make sure that as many people as possible have access to an NHS dentist.”

The figures, contained in a parliamentary answer, show that the number of children aged three to five registered with a dentist in Scotland has risen nearly 15% in the last two years, to 80%.

Separate figures also show that the number of NHS dentists across Scotland has risen 20% in the last three years.

Ms Robison added, “It is well known that children who get into good oral health habits early on are much more likely to continue these into later life.”