In 2014, Indian doctors performed a record-breaking surgery
in which they extracted 232 teeth from the mouth of a then 17-year-old boy. The
surgery had a seven-hour duration. Ashik Gavai, the teen from whose mouth the
teeth were extracted, was brought to Mumbai for medical care, by his father
Suresh Gavai. "I was worried that it may turn out to be cancer so I
brought him to Mumbai," said Suresh.
Dr. Sunanda Dhiware, head of Mumbai's JJ Hospital's dental
department told the BBC Ashik was brought in with a swelling in his right jaw.
After suffering for 18 months with local doctors in Ashik's village unable to
diagnose Ashik's ailment, he was brought to the city. His condition was
described as being "very rare".
"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," said Dr Dhiware.
"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.
Before Ashik, a maximum of 37 teeth had been extracted from
such a tumor. After extracting the extra 232 teeth, Ashik was left with 28
normal teeth.
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