Trip to Nepal

I recently had an amazing opportunity to go on a dental mission trip to Nepal. As an outdoor enthusiast, the chance to see Mount Everest was breathtaking and literally brought tears to my eyes. To be able to understand the area, imagine gorgeous mountains surrounding the villages, no cars or mode of transportation at all, no hot water for showers, no toilet seats, no heat in the lodges, and children walking to school, sometimes taking up to 1 hour to get there.
I worked with a dentist from the Everest Region. He is the only dentist in the area and he treks from village to village 2 times a year to visit the schools to examine the children. He screened the children to decide which children looked the worst off to be seen. Now as our American children have their teeth cleaned twice a year, the Nepalese children just get cavities taken care of. If they were lucky to be chosen, they came into our make-shift dental office which was actually a school classroom, laid on a bench, with me behind them, and opened wide. Without numbing medicine, we drilled out the cavity with a slow drill, and filled the tooth with a fluoride releasing, white filling. Many people have asked me how the children did. They were very well behaved, polite, and not a “peep” out of them.
It is wonderful that we and our children have so many opportunities here, like the visiting the dentist twice a year for PREVENTION/CHECK-UPS and numbing medicine if there is a cavity. Exploring other countries certainly makes me realize how privileged we are in the USA.