Gwasanaethau deintyddol GIG: Hydref i Rhagfyr 2025

This report provides new data for headline measures relating to patients treated and courses of treatment provided for the quarter October to December 2025.

Additional datasets which are normally updated annually have been published with new data for the financial year 2024 to 2025 on StatsWales. These relate to characteristics of patients treated including age group, gender, ethnicity, Welsh Index of Multiple Deprivation (WIMD) 2025 quintile and Assessment of Clinical Oral Risks and Need (ACORN) measure. All annual datasets have now been updated on StatsWales.

Following the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidance, statistics on adults treated are based on the previous 24-month period, and statistics for children refer to the previous 12-month period.

Each patient is counted only once in the total patients treated statistics even if they have received multiple episodes of care during the reference period. However, all courses of treatment are counted in the activity statistics, even if the same patient had multiple treatments.

Patients may be treated outside of their resident health board and orthodontic patients are included.

The percentage of Welsh children treated by an NHS dentist has remained broadly stable over the last year with close to half of the child population treated, while four out of ten Welsh adults were treated over the last two years, continuing the recent stable trend.

The number of courses of treatment provided decreased in the latest quarter but has remained broadly stable over the previous three years, with small quarterly variations.

Patients treated in a 12 and 24-month period

Data refers to Welsh resident patients treated at NHS dental practices in Wales and England only. Any non-Welsh resident patients treated in Wales are not included in this measure but are included on separate StatsWales datasets showing data for all patients treated in Wales.

Patients treated in Wales in a 12-month period (StatsWales)

Patients treated in Wales in a 24-month period (StatsWales)   

Figure 1: percentage of Welsh resident adults and children treated in rolling 24-month and 12-month periods, 31 March 2019 to 31 December 2025 [Note 1]

Image

Description of figure 1: line charts showing the percentage of both adults and children treated in recent quarters remains below their pre-pandemic levels. The percentage of children treated had been on a steady upward trend over the last two and a half years but has levelled off in the most recent quarters, while the percentage of adults treated has remained broadly largely stable over the last two years.

Source: FP17W form, NHS Business Services Authority; mid-year population estimates, ONS

[Note 1] Adults refers to those aged 18 years or older. Children refers to those aged 0 to 17 years.

Welsh resident children treated in a 12-month period by local health board (StatsWales)

Welsh resident adults treated in a 24-month period by local health board (StatsWales)

More than 1 million adults were treated in the 24-month period that ended on 31 December 2025. This is equivalent to 40.0% of the adult population and is 0.3 percentage points lower than in the 24-month period that ended on 31 December 2024.

Just more than 295,000 children were treated in the 12-month period that ended on 31 December 2025. This is equivalent to 47.5% of children living in Wales and is 0.2 percentage points higher than in the 12-month period that ended on 31 December 2024.

New patients treated

Data for ‘new patients’ is published on StatsWales.

New patients are defined as: a unique count of patients at each NHS dental contractor who completed a Band 1, 2, or 3 treatment with a complete Assessment of Clinical Oral Risks and Need (ACORN) in the year, whose previous Band 1, 2, or 3 treatment at the contractor was completed more than 48 months prior to the ACORN; or who have not previously been treated by the NHS dental contractor. 

For the financial year to date (1 April 2025 to 20 March 2026), fewer than 142,000 new patients had routine treatments in Wales.

While new patients are unique counts for each specific dental contractor, it is estimated that around 80% of new patients in the financial year to date did not have a separate Band 1, 2 or 3 treatment at another Welsh contractor in the previous 4 years.

A further 79,000 urgent treatments have also been provided to new patients in the year to date.

Activity

Activity statistics refer to all NHS courses of treatment provided by dental practices in Wales. It includes treatments provided to patients who did not live in Wales at the time of the treatment, but does not include any privately funded treatments.

Figure 2: courses of treatment provided per quarter, quarter ending December 2016 to quarter ending December 2025 [Note 1]

Image

Description of figure 2: line chart showing that the number of courses of treatment provided each quarter has remained broadly stable for the last three years, with some small quarterly variations. While treatments have increased since the height of the pandemic, they remain below the pre-pandemic level.

Source: FP17W form, NHS Business Services Authority

Number of courses of treatment by quarter ending March each year (StatsWales)

[Note 1] Data for April to December 2025 are provisional and will be revised at the end of the financial year.

During the quarter October to December 2025, there were more than 343,000 NHS dental courses of treatment delivered to both adults and children. This is a decrease of 2.4% compared to the same period last year.

The number of courses of treatment in the quarter October to December 2025 was 41.2% lower than the number in the last equivalent quarter that was unaffected by the pandemic (October to December 2019).

NHS dental services: quality report

NHS Workforce and Primary Care Statistics
Email: stats.healthinfo@gov.wales

Media: 0300 025 8099

SFR 31/2026