Bringing Smiles to the Himalaya: Looking back at the 2025 Musa Masala Dental Camp

All of us at Musa Masala are proud to announce our 5th dental camp dates, June 17th - 20th, 2026 at the Wongchhu Sherpa Memorial Hospital, Solukhumbu, Nepal. Once again we will provide free dental care to all who come. We are looking forward to not only our returning smiles but to giving people a chance to enjoy what should be a human right for all: healthcare. 

Let’s go back and review our camp from 2025 and celebrate these amazing dentists who come out from Kathmandu to provide this necessary service to those who geographic location and economic barriers make oral health so difficult to access.

Here is the data from the 2025 camp:

1. 729 unique patient contacts - a jump of over 200 from 2024

2. 189 tooth extractions

3. 127 cavities filled

4. 153 fluoride treatments to prevent future decay

5. 98 Silver Diamine Fluoride treatments to stop disease progression

Each patient received a consultation and guidance to support long term oral health.

As with each year, the collaboration between the following make it all happen.

Sponsor - Musa Masala

Organizer - The Wongchhu Sherpa Memorial Hospital

Organizer - The Wongchhu Sherpa Memorial Trust 

Supported By - Wongchhu Peak Promotion 

Supported By - Dentist Nepal with Dr. Anumesh Dahal 

The plan and motivation for the camps is that they be locally led, culturally aligned, and sustainable, not just a one time intervention.

Meet our team!

We had many returning team members and some new members in 2025 who really stepped up and made it a great camp.

As with every year,transportation and logistics is handled by Wongchhu Peak Promotion, a premier climbing and trekking company that is well known for its philanthropic works in Nepal. That team was led by Lakpa Sherpa. On site logistics and now basically a dental assistant, Ang Diku Sherpa, kept everything on track and as close to schedule as possible.

Also from WPP,

Phula Sherpa

Tenzi Sherpa

The Dental Team

As for our first camp, Dr. Anumesh Dahal put together the team for us:

1. Dr Anumesh Dahal

2. Dr. Asmita Gyawali

3. Dr. Parayash Dallakoti

4. Dr. Sreya Kayastha

5. Dr. Pratima Panta

6. Dr. Manish Prasad Sah

The Wongchhu Sherpa Memorial Hospital team as before is critical to the success of the camp and medical director Dr. Gyaltsen Gurung helped support the dentists throughout the camp along with the staff and Ngwang Furi Sherpa, the hospital manager.

Education is the primary mission of Musa Masala. During the camp and as an ongoing project led by Dr. Gyaltsen, oral health education sessions were given to approximately 250 children. Teaching good oral health practices are exceedingly important in an area without regular availability for professional dental care.

The impact of the Musa Masala dental camps on the community extends far beyond the four day camp.

1. Immediate pain relief for hundreds of patients

2. Prevention of serious infections and complications 

3. Reduced need for costly travel to Kathmandu for care

4. Stronger trust in the local health system

Each year as the camps grow, we see and hear about the trust people now have in the hospital and in our dental camps.

This leads us to some new truths we need to address:

1. We need more supplies at each camp. We actually had to turn away schools and adults due to running out of supplies.

2. We found people were coming from areas further away. We simply need to accommodate more people as trust in our program grows.

3. We need to secure more basic supplies, toothbrushes, and toothpaste, for example, locally. With the growth of the camps it gives local vendors an opportunity to sell more to us, we need to work with them to accommodate their ordering.

4. We plan to expand the camps to at least two per year.

5. We are exploring the possibility of a permanent dental station and position at the Wongchhu Sherpa Memorial Hospital.

Donate today:

Your donations can help us to fund the existing camp for 2026, but also to enact these plans above. Your help is visual, you can see the change it brings to people’s lives. As Dr. Panta wrote for World Oral Health Day, “A happy mouth should not depend on geography .” World Oral Health Day: "A happy mouth should not depend on geography." — Musa Masala

Make your tax-deductible donation here.