Doctors Extract Surprising 232 Teeth From Mouth of Teen Boy; Will Submit Case to Guinness World Record
Doctors who extracted a shocking 232 teeth from the mouth of a 17-year-old boy in India Monday were so overwhelmed by the haul that they have decided to submit the case to the Guinness World Record to check if they may have stumbled on a record for most number of teeth extracted from one person's mouth.
According to the Mumbai Mirror, a year and a half ago, 17-year-old Ashiq Gavai's family noticed a swelling on the right side of his jaw in the Indian village of Buldhana district. About a month ago, the boy started experiencing severe pain, and when doctors couldn't diagnose what was causing the swelling his family worried it was cancer pushing his father, Suresh Gavai, to take him to specialists in Mumbai.
"I was worried that it may turn out to be cancer so I brought him to Mumbai," Gavai said.
At J. J. Hospital in Mumbai, doctors diagnosed the teenager with a rare medical condition called composite odontoma.
"According to medical literature available on this condition, the condition has been known to be found in the upper jaw and a maximum of 25 teeth have been extracted from the tumor. But in Ashiq's case, the tumor was deep in the lower jaw and we removed more than 232 teeth," Dr Sunanda Dhiware, head of the dental unit at J.J. Hospital told the Mumbai Mirror.
It took a team of two lead surgeons and two assisting surgeons to remove the toothy tumor.
"While a few teeth were loose, others were in clumps which made it difficult to count. The tumor was an abnormal growth of the second molar which did not come out. It was also pressing on the wisdom tooth which we had to remove," said Dhiware.
At one point, said Dr. Vandana Thorawade, who worked on the tumor, they worried it would break the teenager's jaw.
"We had the jaw plates and screws ready in case of emergency. But miraculously, his jaw was intact. Had he waited for longer, there were chances that his jaw bone would have been damaged," said Thorawade said.
Doctors say Ashiq now has a normal set of 28 teeth, but there is a chance he could start getting extra toothy again.
"Though we tried our best to remove every bit of teeth, there may have been some residual left. In that case, there are chances of those growing back. We have told the family that regular check-ups and investigation are a must," said Thorawade.