Mumbai, Jul 24: Doctors have extracted more than 232 teeth from the mouth of a Mumbai teenager during a seven-hour operation.
Ashik Gavai, 17, sought medical help for a swelling on the right side of his lower jaw after suffering pain for 18 months.
His case was referred to the Mumbai's JJ Hospital, where they found he was suffering from a condition known as complex odontoma.
"We operated on Monday and it took us almost seven hours," said head of dentistry Sunanda Dhivare-Palwankar.
"We thought it may be a simple surgery but once we opened it there were multiple pearl-like teeth inside the jaw bone."
After removing those they also found a larger "marble-like" structure which they struggled to shift and eventually had to "chisel out" and remove in fragments, she added.
The youngster's father, Suresh Gavai, said the family had been worried that Ashik's swelling was a cancerous growth.
"I was worried that it may turn out to be cancer so I brought him to Mumbai," he told the Mumbai Mirror newspaper.
Ms 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 Ashik's mouth.
"I think it could be a world record," she said.
Ashik's jawbone structure was maintained during the operation so it should heal without any deformities, the surgeon added.
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