After two years on the drawing board, the Health Ministry released a new oral health policy. A severely neglected sector in Nepali healthcare, we have some of the highest rates of oral disease in South Asia. Dental cavities affects 67 percent of children aged 6-12 years, the number one pediatric affliction, with an even higher incidence than malnutrition and vitamin A deficiency. Almost half the population of Nepalis aged 35-40 suffer from gum disease. Oral cancer is the third most prevalent cancer affecting adult Nepalis.

According to Praveen Mishra, a senior consultant in the Health Ministry, the first phase of the policy's approach will establish a focal point for oral health, followed by a nationwide oral health survey. Salt fluoridation and the affordable quality fluoride toothpaste is also a top priority. "This body has been prepared but without the parliament, it's stuck," says Mishra. Other goals include the appointment of dental surgeons to each of the 205 primary healthcare centres by 2005 and to the districts by 2017, training of primary health care workers and promotion of oral health at schools.

An optimistic Mishra, also president of the Nepal Dental Council, told us, "The inequitable distribution of the health system faces many constraints: financial, manpower and the state of the roads. But the policy will slowly overcome these challenges."