Smiles at Sea is ‘levelling up health’ as it hits Cornwall and Devon to help provide dental care for coastal families.
Neil Carmichael, chair of the ADG, praised the latest Smiles at Sea tour of Cornwall and Devon.
The scheme is offering dental checks, oral cancer screenings and emergency treatment at four fishing ports in Cornwall and Devon all of this week.
Aid reform
The aim is to ease any existing dental complications, including fillings, tooth extractions and scale and polish. In addition they will also refer to NHS clinics where more complex treatment is required.
Now Neil is calling on the government to pledge further support to more outreach programmes to help reform.
He joined the initiative at its Brixham Harbour stop in Devon today. ‘Good health enables an individual to participate fully in society and must be a part of levelling up the UK,’ he said.
‘There is a crisis in access to dentistry in our rural and coastal communities. This will only be solved by two actions – reforming NHS dentistry to enable more work such as “Smiles at Sea” to be delivered and recruiting more dentists to the parts of the country where they are most needed.’
Poorer access
He added: ‘The government must provide incentives for NHS dentists to move to areas with poorer access to dentistry such as Cornwall.’
The ADG is pushing for government incentives for NHS dentists to move to areas with poorer access to dentistry.
This includes the south coast such as Cornwall, the Isle of Wight and Portsmouth. However they also focus on the Yorkshire and Lincolnshire coastlines.
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