SOUTH East Cornwall MP Anna Gelderd has taken Cornwall’s worsening NHS dentistry crisis directly to government ministers following mounting complaints from residents struggling to secure appointments.

The Labour MP said people across South East Cornwall had repeatedly contacted her about the growing difficulty of accessing NHS dental care, with rural communities facing some of the biggest challenges.

Determined to push the issue higher up the political agenda, Ms Gelderd raised the matter with the Department for Health and Social Care, asking ministers what action was being taken to improve access to NHS dentists in rural areas such as Cornwall.

She said: “Many local people have been in contact with me about NHS dentistry services in South East Cornwall. That’s why I asked the Department for Health and Social Care about difficulties accessing NHS dental care in rural areas like ours.”

Responding on behalf of the government, health minister Stephen Kinnock acknowledged recruiting dentists into underserved areas remained a major challenge, but said measures were being introduced to improve access.

He said an additional 1.8 million NHS dental treatment courses had been delivered nationally between April and October 2025 as part of efforts to tackle the backlog in care.

Mr Kinnock also highlighted the continued use of the “Golden Hello” recruitment scheme, which offers financial incentives aimed at encouraging dentists to work in areas where shortages are most severe.

The government says access to urgent dental care has also been expanded, with integrated care boards commissioning additional emergency appointments and a national urgent care safety net now operating across England.

Under new rules introduced from April, dental practices will also be required to provide a minimum number of urgent appointments each year.

Alongside immediate measures, ministers are developing a wider 10-Year Workforce Plan to address long-term staffing shortages across the NHS. Proposals under consideration include requiring newly qualified dentists to remain working within the NHS for at least three years after graduating.

While welcoming the government’s acknowledgement of the problem, Ms Gelderd warned that many residents in South East Cornwall could not afford to wait years for meaningful improvements.

Her intervention comes as figures revealed earlier this year showed the scale of Cornwall’s dental crisis, particularly among children.

North Cornwall Liberal Democrat MP Ben Maguire said the “landscape of dentistry in Cornwall has completely collapsed” after new data showed a sharp rise in children attending A&E with urgent dental problems.

Figures obtained through a Freedom of Information request show attendances by under-18s at Treliske and West Cornwall hospitals for tooth decay and dental abscesses rose from 29 cases in 2020/21 to 56 cases in 2024/25, peaking at 64 in 2023/24.

In total, 226 children required emergency hospital treatment for dental issues over the past five years.

Mr Maguire said: “These figures make the national scandal playing out right here in Cornwall quite clear.”

He added parents in Cornwall were becoming increasingly desperate as routine NHS dental care “has all but vanished” in some communities.