URGENT measures are being called for after a report showed that thousands of children throughout Cornwall are not receiving dental care.

A survey of 27,000 homes across the county showed that approximately 9,000 children from primary to secondary school age have not been registered at a dentist, pointing to a lack of NHS practitioners as the cause.

Children receive free care on the NHS but the report suggests that the falling number of health service dentists may be stopping lower income parents taking advantage of the provision. Over one quarter of children of adults who are not NHS patients have also not registered their children with any practice.

Chairman of the single-issue panel assigned to investigate the issue, David Whalley, said: "Possibly the most worrying finding of the report is the number of children who do not see a dentist.

"We have grown accustomed to the dental health of the community improving. There are real dangers of those improvements being reversed, of dental health of the next generation getting worse."

The report stated that the lack of NHS dentists was the reason given by most adults who had not registered with anybody and "vast majority" of the 35 percent of private patients said they had switched after their local NHS practice had gone private.

The report cited mounting bureaucracy and levels of medical student debt for NHS dentists moving to the private sector.

The panel called for more government funding to help keep a large supply of NHS dentists.