NHS dental treatment in Wales remains 40% below pre-Covid levels – what do the latest figures tell us?

Mark Mansfield

The amount of NHS dental treatment carried out in Wales remains 40% below pre-pandemic levels, despite signs that access to dentists is slowly improving.

New Welsh Government figures show close to 1.4 million courses of NHS dental treatment were recorded in 2025-26 – 40.3% fewer than in 2019-20, the last financial year largely unaffected by the Covid pandemic.

The number also fell by 1.7% compared with 2024-25, although the Welsh Government said the overall trend had remained broadly stable over the previous three years.

The figures provide the final full-year picture of NHS dentistry under the dental contract that was replaced at the end of March.

So what do they tell us about the state of NHS dentistry in Wales – and are there signs that access is recovering?

How many people are seeing an NHS dentist?

Just over 1.04 million adults in Wales were treated by an NHS dentist during the 24 months to March 2026.

That represented 40.6% of the adult population, up slightly from 40.3% in the previous period.

The figures for children show a stronger improvement.

Just under 308,000 children were treated during the 12 months to March 2026, equivalent to 50.5% of the child population and an increase of 1.7 percentage points on the previous year.

However, access remains substantially below the levels recorded before the pandemic.

The proportion of adults treated was 11.3 percentage points below the figure for the 24 months ending March 2020.

For children, the proportion receiving NHS dental treatment was 8.1 percentage points lower than in the 12 months ending March 2020.

What treatment is being carried out?

More than six in 10 courses of treatment during 2025-26 were Band 1, which includes check-ups and relatively simple treatment.

The number of Band 1 treatments increased by 1.4% compared with the previous year.

But activity fell across every other treatment category.

Band 2 treatments, which can include fillings, extractions and root canal work, fell by 3.7%, while Band 3 treatments, including crowns, dentures and bridges, dropped by 7.7%.

Urgent treatments were down 9.1%, while free treatments fell by 16.9% to their lowest number on record.

Almost £25m was collected from patient charges during the year, down 2.1% on 2024-25.

Are new patients getting appointments?

There are signs of improvement in the number of new patients entering NHS dental care.

A total of 150,776 new patients were treated during 2025-26, an increase of 3% on the previous year.

Of those, 88,792 were adults and 61,984 were children.

The number has remained broadly stable over the past three years.

There was also an increase in orthodontic treatment.

Just over 10,600 orthodontic treatments were started during 2025-26, up 5.7% on the previous year and the second-highest figure on record.

How many Welsh patients are going to England?

The statistics also reveal a growing imbalance in the number of patients crossing the border for NHS dental treatment.

During the 24 months ending March 2026, 30,187 adults living in Wales were treated by NHS dentists in England.

By comparison, 9,342 adults living elsewhere in the UK and the Channel Islands received treatment at practices in Wales.

The gap has grown considerably. In the 24 months ending March 2019, the number of Welsh adults treated in England was twice the number travelling in the opposite direction. By March 2026 it was more than three times as high.

The difference is even greater among children.

Some 8,359 children living in Wales were treated by NHS dentists in England during the latest 12-month period, compared with 1,725 children from outside Wales who were treated here.

The number travelling out of Wales was therefore 4.8 times the number coming into Wales for treatment, compared with 1.6 times as many in 2019.

What happens now?

The figures mark the end of an era for NHS dental statistics in Wales.

They are the final annual figures covering the NHS Wales dental contract that remained in force until March 31, 2026.

A new dental contract came into effect on April 1, changing the way patients are recalled and how treatment is categorised.

The British Dental Association (BDA) supports reform of NHS dentistry in principle but has warned that the new contract risks worsening access to treatment, staff morale and patient outcomes.

BDA Cymru has also criticised the way the changes were introduced, saying dentists were not given complete and clear information early enough to prepare for the new arrangements.

It said the previous Welsh Government had chosen not to publish a national model contract, with most health boards instead issuing contract variation notices which provided limited detail beyond requirements governing the proportion of different services dentists should provide.

The association said it had negotiated more flexible conditions for the first year of what it described as an “untested contract” and would press the new Welsh Government for an early review of the arrangements.

The Welsh Government has warned that the changes are significant enough that there is likely to be a break in the statistical series, meaning future figures may not be directly comparable with those published under the old system.

The latest statistics therefore provide something of a final snapshot of NHS dentistry under the previous arrangements: more children and new patients are being treated and orthodontic activity is high, but overall treatment remains far below its pre-pandemic level.

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