Councillor Leigh Frost, the Liberal Democrats leader of Cornwall Council, said the current provision of NHS dentists was “absolutely shocking.”
He said: “These services exist to help people in their time of need and if they’re not getting that access, we need to solve those problems.
“More regular check-ups for people then means they aren’t actually going to get that seriously ill which then puts a pressure on our acute care and our crisis care.”
The British Dental Association has called for the government to go further, external with changes to the existing contract which leaves dentists not sufficiently remunerated for the cost of treating NHS patients.
Dr Jenna Murgatroyd, chair of the local dental committee for Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly, said: “The government is trying to make small changes. Those tweaks are just making an already difficult contract even harder to understand. That in itself is driving dentists away.”
“It’s just too complicated. We do need a fundamental change to the NHS contract,” she added.