THOUSANDS of children will be denied free dental care if a row between the NHS and local dentists is not resolved.

Under a new contract, starting on April 1, practices that offer adults private treatment will no longer be paid to provide free NHS treatment for children.

The South Worcestershire Primary Care Trust contract has angered dentists, who feel they are being blackmailed into returning to the NHS and will not sign it.

This would force parents to find NHS dentists for their children's check-ups and treatment or foot the bill themselves. Adults exempt from paying for dental treatment would face the same problem.

Bill Fleming and Fiona and Dean Morris, at Barnards Green Surgery, have agreed to offer children registered with the practice free emergency treatment for the foreseeable future.

But Mr Fleming admitted the practice would eventually have to start charging for treating children if the situation was not resolved.

Chris Bocking and Ed Houghton, two of five dentists at Buckingham House Dental Surgery, say they do not have the resources to take on the 1,000 extra NHS patients per dentist the PCT requires in its new contract.

The surgery has around 1,200 children and 400 exempt adult patients who currently get free treatment on the NHS.

"The last thing we want to do is privatise children but we feel we're having a gun held against our head to sign something when we know we can't fulfil the requirements," said Mr Bocking.

In other areas of Britain, PCTs and dentists have agreed reduced NHS contracts for children and adults.

There are 38,000 under-18s and 96,000 adults in the whole South Worcestershire PCT area registered as NHS patients.

Paul Bates, the PCT's acting-chief executive, said: "If dentists do not accept the contracts we are offering... we will bring extra dentists into South Worcestershire."

Plans for extending Malvern's NHS service include a new dentist joining the Richmond Road practice, a second Polish dentist starting work after Easter and another practice opening in June.