Doing root canal in the Gods
The village spread below in the natural amphitheatre that is Namche Bazar, 3500m up in the
Himalayas and here I was doing root canal.
The trip had started out with me in my other job as a Trekking Guide. I had 4 clients on a
trip up to Everest Basecamp, however a mix of ‘Kathmandu Cold’ and altitude had
devastated the group with 2 clients heading back down to relative low lands of Kathmandu
(1300m). I had headed up with the two ‘healthy’ clients but by 4000m my cold was getting
really bad and my cough would have been a credit to a 40 a day smoker. I headed back to
Namche to recuperate and wait for the clients.
Namche sits nestled into the hillside 800m above the valley, 3500m up in the Dudh Kosi
valley. It’s a full days walk from where you can fly in at Luckla. At 2800m Lukla poses a
problem for people who have not had time to acclimatise so most groups split the walk to
Namche over 2 days. For most of the locals who can’t afford the $220 round fare to
Kathmandu, the alternative is a 4 day walk to the roadhead and a 10 hour bus trip, each
direction. Namche is the stuff of boys stories, immortalised in so many mountaineering
stories, a staging post on the way to the greatest peaks of the Himlayas, Everest, Cho Oyo,
Ama Dablam and a myriad of lesser peaks.
In Kathmandu I visited a friend who has a dentist, a wonderful Western modern clinic, with
Digital radiography, Implants, NiTi files and the rest. Neil suggested I pop in to the local clinic
in Namche if I had some time, so here I was in Namche with lots of time. I popped over to the
clinic, that means descending to the village centre down a very steep path, avoiding the Yak
dung and more importantly the Yak horns at they butt each other when one hesitates on the
brink of some extra steep section. Once in the village it is another steep climb to the clinic,
which sits above the village, the path to this part of the village is wider but all the trekking
yak trains come down it so you still have to pick your way between the poo and horns.
Nawang Doka Sherpa is the daughter of a very famous high altitude Sherpa, she trained as
a dental therapist in Canada however unlike so many young Sherpas who leave to be
educated, she returned to Namche after qualifying. Nawang is committed to trying to provide
dental care to the Sherpa population, she is passionate about improving the standard of the
mouths in the Solu Khumbu, she does however face many challenges. The effects of the
Western trekkers who have passed through the valley over the last 40 years has had a
massive effect, from trekkers handing out sweets to children, western confectionary readily
available, western diets catered for but worst of all is the addition of sugar to the chia (tea)
which forms such a major of the Sherpas daily routine, it is not unusual to see a Sherpa add
4 spoons of sugar to his tea and he may stop for tea every hour.
So here I was in Namche, I’d visited the sites, read 3 books, eaten momos and drunk
enough chia (without sugar) to float a navy. It was suppertime and the teahouse was in full
swing, the daily batch of trekkers had all arrived and had thankfully all showered. The
phone rang, not that common an occurrence, it was Nawang Doka for me. Would it be
possible for me to help? A Sherpa from Dingboche, 2 more days up the valley was having
trouble with a tooth and she thought it needed root treatment. Nawang does not do rct and
the patient would need to go to Kathmandu but this was not an option as he was really busy
and couldn’t take 10 days off work or afford the $400US fee at a western clinic in
Kathmandu (a cook in a Lodge on the trail earns around 3000 rupees a month, that is
$50US) so she was going to have to extract the tooth. I said I would be happy to help out, so
I saw the patient the next morning. The young Sherpa had been hit and the UR3 had
fracture, it had been opened by a dentist covering for Nawang but had not settled. A quick x-
ray showed it to be a monster, despite having lost a piece it was 31mm, it had not been
cleaned to the apex. The clinic luckily has 28mm files, hypochlorite, AH+, GP and fingers
spreaders, so 1 hour later he had a fully filled canal and all for the fee of 1200 rupees. The
only unusual part of the treatment was that the whole waiting room came in to watch….
apparently not that unusual!
Much as I love spending time in the Himalayas and especially Namche, I am not going to be
there the next time a problem like this arises. Whilst the provision of endodontics at the
clinic would be a major step forward for the local population, there are more pressing
issues. Nawang has been working at the clinic since 1991, she has been using the same
equipment for all of this time and having had a chance to use it, it has seen good service
but is frankly passed it, held together with ‘hope and chewing gum’. Over the next year I will
be raising funds to refit the practice and so ensure the continued provision of dentistry in
the ‘Highest Dental Clinic in the world’.
If you would like to help raise funds or donate please contact me on
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