A Narberth mum has given up waiting up to two years for her son to be seen by a local orthodontist and is making a 90-mile round trip to Swansea instead.

Katie Howells's nine-year-old son Ewan has been on the waiting list for a year already, but she's been told he faces at least another six-month wait.

Last week, orthodontist Dr. David Howells wrote to the Welsh health minister describing the situation in West Wales as 'dire'.

He said that while Carmarthenshire Local Health Board returned an unspent £262,000 earmarked for dental services, he has no NHS funding until April next year.

Carmarthenshire LHB has now asked the NHS for the money to be returned and the three west Wales LHBs have set up a planning group to look into the issue.

Meanwhile, Ms. Howells has given up waiting for her son to be seen locally.

"I was originally told that it would be at least six to eight months wait, but when I rang the other day, I was told that it's more like a two-year wait," she said.

"One of the reasons is that children with more severe problems are being referred and have to be seen urgently.

"At the moment, Ewan isn't an urgent case, but the longer it's left and the bigger his teeth get, the more problems are being stored up for future."

Ms. Howells discovered that if she was willing to drive the 90-mile round trip to Swansea, then the waiting list is only six months long.

"It seems a long way to go, but I think its worth it to get his teeth looked at before it's too late," she added.

Conservative Parliamentary candidate Simon Hart, who highlighted Ewan's case six months ago, is appalled to hear how bad the problem has got.

"When we originally highlighted this problem, I was told by an orthodontist that things were worse than the official figures let on, but I didn't realise just how severe the situation is.

"It is hard to believe that Carmarthenshire LHB returned the dental services money despite such a severe shortage. The orthodontists are obviously doing the best they can in a difficult situation.

"Anyone can see that the LHBs should be appointing a new orthodontist to the area instead of setting up 'planning groups'."