Boy Has 232 Teeth Removed. Chew On That!

(Inset) Ashiq Gavai before the surgery;
Above: Doctors at J J Hospital extracted the 232
teeth after a six-hour operation

Talk about a mouthful! This poor 17-year-old who suffered from a rare condition had to have 232 teeth extracted after complaining of severe pain.  The family initially feared he was suffering from cancer so they brought him to the JJ Hospital in Mumbai.

After more than six hours later, he is left with 28 teeth. This was such an amazing ordeal that the doctors had decided to forward the case to the Guinness World Record for the most number of teeth extracted from an individual! No kiddin’.

Ashiq Gavai, the boy with this rare condition, lives in a village in Buldhana district in Amravati region and about a year-and-a-half ago, his family noticed swelling in his lower jaw but the doctors there couldn’t identify the problem.

Head of Mumbai’s Sir J. J. Hospital Dental Department Dr. Sunanda Dhivare-Palwankar with Ashik Gavai, 17, and the record 232 tiny teeth extracted from his mouth.

Complex Composite Odontoma, is the name given to this rare condition but is only known to affect the upper jaw.

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 tumour. But in Ashiq’s case, the tumour was deep in the lower jaw and we removed more than 232 teeth. – Dr. Sunanda Dhiware

During the surgery, the team of medical doctors were amazed to see scores and scores of tiny teeth popping out of that abnormal molar, which was measuring around 3.5X2 cm, or the size of a large marble.

They also found during surgery, another hard, rock-like formation inside the affected tooth in Ashik’s mouth which could not be removed by a dentist’s drill.
They had to eventually resort to the old ‘chisel-mallet’ to break down the  hard formation which was putting extreme pressure on Ashiq’s jaw bone and his surrounding healthy teeth.

This operation was the first of its kind for this hospital, (and probably for the world).

Now thanks to this great medical team, Ashiq will now live a normal life.

The surgery was covered under the state government’s health insurance scheme for the poor, Rajiv Gandhi Jeevdayi Arogya Yojana (RGJAY), which would have otherwise cost him around Rs 40,000, ($665,000.00US), in a private hospital.

Source(s): mumbaimirror | indiantimes