Indian boy has 232 teeth removed

An adult usually has 32 teeth but a rarity occurred when a 17 year old Indian boy had intense surgery lasting over 5 hours to remove over 200 teeth. This condition is referred to as odontoma which is a malformation of the tissues of the mouth and may interfere with the eruption of the associated tooth and disturbances where the dental components are laid down in a disorganized manner. (Caution - some of the pictures below may be distressing). Continue...

Ashik Gavai was brought in with a swelling in his right jaw, Dr Sunanda Dhiware, head of Mumbai's JJ Hospital's dental department, told the BBC.

The teenager had been suffering for 18 months and travelled to the city from his village after local doctors failed to identify the cause of the problem. Doctors have described his condition as "very rare" and "a world record".

"Ashik's malaise was diagnosed as a complex composite odontoma where a single gum forms lots of teeth. It's a sort of benign tumour," Dr Dhiware said.

"At first, we couldn't cut it out so we had to use the basic chisel and hammer to take it out.

"Once we opened it, little pearl-like teeth started coming out, one-by-one. Initially, we were collecting them, they were really like small white pearls. But then we started to get tired. We counted 232 teeth," she added. The surgery, conducted on Monday 21 July 2014, involved two surgeons and two assistants. The team was led by Dr Vandana Thorawade who heads the hospital's ENT (ear, nose and throat) department. Ashik now has 28 teeth.

Describing Ashik's case as "very rare", Dr Dhiware said she had "not seen anything like this before in my 30-year career", but said she was "thrilled to get such an exciting case".

"According to medical literature available on the condition, it is known to affect the upper jaw and a maximum of 37 teeth have been extracted from the tumour in the past. But in Ashik's case, the tumour was found deep in the lower jaw and it had hundreds of teeth."

Ashik's father Suresh Gavai was quoted by the Mumbai Mirror as saying that his son complained of severe pain a month ago.

"I was worried that it may turn out to be cancer so I brought him to Mumbai," he said.