Devon Dental Van Stalls as Cornish One Launches
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- Published: Wednesday, 10 September 2025 10:35
- Written by Peter Ingle
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Just a week apart, two rather different stories have emerged from the West Country about dental vans. With their proportionately high rural populations, small coastal communities and many households on low incomes, both Devon and Cornwall have a good deal in common.
They share dental desert status, and in the run up to the 2024 election the lack of access to NHS dentists was often raised by the areas MP’s, though that did not save many of them in an area that experienced particularly high Conservative losses.
In Cornwall to get more peoples able to see an NHS dentist, NHS Cornwall & Isles of Scilly Integrated Care Board has commissioned a dental van. Chief Medical Officer, Dr Chris Reid, says that it is one part of starting to address the issue: "This is about getting that access to the rural areas and sometimes certain cohorts of people who we know in particular struggle to get access, such as fishing communities and veterans.” He acknowledged that vans alone would not solve the problem adding that whilst this year they were offering an extra 10,000 emergency appointments, that, “there’s a lot further to go.” He also spoke of “looking at” dentist’s contracts.
The van launched last month and is pre-booking people who have been waiting for an NHS dentist, aiming to bring this care to more rural or geographically isolated areas.
The project has been carried out in collaboration with Smile Together Dental CIC (community interest company) who are deploying their teams to supermarket car parks to improve access.
Dentist Vinny Syme is one of the team working in the new van. He said many people are excited about seeing a dentist as it’s been a while: "they’re actually very pleased to be seeing a dentist again and getting the teeth checked.
"I try not to think too much about the backlog because it’s big, so we just keep going, really. We just do one patient at a time and doing what’s needed but it’s great to be where we’re needed most".
The mobile teams can carry out oral health examinations, urgent care and treatment, and refer any patients with more complex requirements for further appointments.
Speaking as the van opened its doors, NHS England’s Chief Dental Officer for the South West Matthew Jerreat added: "It’s fantastic that residents living in some of our most rural and far-flung areas will now be able to access an NHS dentist closer to home. It’s another step in rebuilding access to NHS dentistry and in our long-term plans to improve oral health, especially in remote and deprived areas where people struggle most to get the help they need."
In contrast plans for a similar project in Devon appear to have stalled, with Devonlive reporting that, “The idea to bring a dental van to Devon to help tackle the county’s significant dental crisis has been parked.”
There as in Cornwall health leaders had thought that a dental van could be useful in reaching communities with poor dental provision, as well as more isolated communities. Indeed, at a health and wellbeing board meeting in April last year, the timeframe for the arrival of the dental van was being “worked on”, with the board expected to be given an update as progress emerged.
But more recently, in response to questions from the Local Democracy Reporting Service, the county’s health service stated a van was not among its immediate priorities. The NHS Devon response was: “NHS England are working closely with the government to consider future options for dental vans, but at this stage are only asking integrated care boards (ICBs) to take forward commissioning of van-based services where they have made a local determination that this would be the best option for their population. We do not believe a van is best for our population at the moment, so we are not pursuing this as a priority.”
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