In the region of Wales, patients are being offered tens of thousands of new NHS dental appointments.
According to Swansea Bay Health Board, dental practices were "severely impacted" by Covid rules, and now managers are attempting to catch up on dental care.
Between April 2022 and April 2023, dentists are anticipated to have seen an additional 28,000 new patients.
It occurs as Welsh residents struggle to find a dentist who is part of the NHS.
According to Sharon Miller, director of primary care for the health board, "Dental practices were closed at the beginning of the pandemic and then very restricted in the number of patients that could come through."
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14,325 dental appointments for "new patients" who haven't seen a dentist in four years have already been scheduled since April.
The health board, however, urged those "not in urgent need" to wait.
According to Ms. Miller, "We are working hard to change the service so we can get those new patients through the door."
Most of Wales shares the issues that the Swansea Bay University Health Board region does.
Prior to the pandemic, NHS Wales dentists completed just over 2.3 million treatment plans annually.
In 2020–21, only 544,755 treatment courses were reported, a decline of 76.7%.
In 2020–21, there were only 3,500 pediatric dental examinations reported, a 99.4% decrease from the previous year.