Indian boy has 232 teeth removed
Surgeons operating on lump in Ashik Gavai's jaw found many 'pearl-like teeth' and a solid 'marble-like' growth
Thursday 24 July 2014
Surgeons in Mumbai have removed 232 teeth from the mouth of an Indian teenager in what they believe may be a world-record operation.
Ashik Gavai, 17, sought medical help for a swelling on the right side of his lower jaw and the case was referred to the city's JJ hospital, where they found he was suffering from a condition known as complex odontoma, said head of dentistry Sunanda Dhivare-Palwankar.
"We operated on Monday and it took us almost seven hours. We thought it may be a simple surgery but once we opened it there were multiple pearl-like teeth inside the jaw bone," she said.
After removing those they found a larger "marble-like" structure that they struggled to shift and eventually had to "chisel out" and remove in fragments.
Ashik's father, Suresh Gavai, said the family had been worried that the swelling was a malignant growth.
"I was worried that it may turn out to be cancer so I brought him to Mumbai," Gavai told the Mumbai Mirror newspaper.
Dhivare-Palwankar said the literature they had come across on the condition showed a maximum of 37 teeth being removed in such a procedure, whereas she and her team had counted more than 232 taken from Gavai's mouth.
"I think it could be a world record," she said.
Gavai's jawbone structure was maintained during the operation so it should heal without deformities, the surgeon added.
