Cornwall Dentistry Summit

The Cornwall Dentistry Summit, convened by Cllr Leigh Frost Leader of Cornwall Council, will be held on 17 July 2026, 10am - 12pm. The Summit will be live streamed on the Council's channels - details to follow.

The Summit will bring together, for an open conversation, the authorities, agencies and organisations involved in dentistry in Cornwall, with the ability to identify and help deliver solutions to the ongoing issues Cornwall is dealing with.

If you would like to submit a question for the Panel, please use the form at the bottom of this page.

Cllr Leigh Frost, Leader of Cornwall Council, convened the Summit.
Leigh said: "This is such an important subject for us to tackle. Lack of access to NHS dentistry is a longstanding problem in Cornwall, and something needs to change, but we also need to be honest about the nature of the problem. This is a complicated issue, and it is bigger than Cornwall. It will not be solved by us pretending there is a quick fix. But we’re not powerless either, we can bring the right people together, have an open conversation about the scale of the challenge, and focus on finding practical solutions that will benefit our residents."

Background to the Summit
We are all well aware of the scale of the challenges people face in Cornwall around access to NHS dentistry provision: with people having to travel long distances, sometimes outside Cornwall, for dental appointments; parents worrying about their children; and older people struggling to get the dental care they need.

Cornwall Council's Health and Adult Social Care Overview and Scrutiny Committee also considered a report from Cornwall Healthwatch in October 2025. You can read more about the report on the Councils' wesite: Agenda for HASCOSC, 8 October 2025 - Cornwall Healthwatch: The Dental Crisis in Cornwall, your questions answered See item HASC/OSC13

Cornwall Council passed a motion in April 2026 'Cornwall Dentistry' on the current provision of dentistry for children in Cornwall. You can read more about the Motion on the Council's website: Agenda for Cornwall Council - Tuesday, 21 April, 2026, 10.30 am - Cornwall Council See item CC/154.

Summit intentions
The Summit will look seriously at prevention-first approaches, exploring what more can be done through pilots here in Cornwall for things like brushing schemes and better oral health advice. This summit will give Cornwall a stronger platform from which to continue lobbying government to improve the state of dentistry in Cornwall.

The Summit aims to:

• Provide a clear, evidence-based account of the current position on dental access in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly
• Build a shared understanding across partners, members and the public of the scale of the challenge and the key constraints
• Clarify what is realistically deliverable locally, versus what sits at regional or national level
• Support a number of practical, system-wide commitments and next steps for all the partners.

The expectation is that the Cornwall Dentistry Summit will not end as a one-off conversation but will result in collective and tangible actions from the organisations involved in the solutions.

Summit Chair / MC
The event will be chaired by Julie Skentelbery, from BBC Radio Cornwall. Julie will take questions from an invited audience of stakeholders for the Panel to respond to and discuss, as well as questions from residents to ensure their concerns are being heard.

Ask a question for the Panel
Please use the form below to submit a question or comment you would like to share with the Panel.

The Panel won't be able to answer or address every question during the Summit, but feedback from the Summit will inform the next steps and we will publish as many questions and answers as we can after the Summit.