Doctors pull out 232 teeth from teenager's mouth in Mumbai

Doctors at a Mumbai hospital might have ripped apart a world record as they extracted 232 teeth from the mouth of a 17-year-old Indian boy here on Thursday.

Hailing from a small village with lack of good healthcare facilities, Ashique Gavai's family decided to visit a good hospital in the city when their son complained of swelling and pain in his right side of the mouth.

The problem of swelling had been persistent for over a year, but after the boy started complaining of pain a month ago, the concerned family even got tests for cancer done.

"There was a swelling on the right side. So, he was undergoing immense pain. Therefore, we brought him here for a check-up," said Gavai's father, Suresh Gavai

The doctors discovered abnormal growth near the second molar through a series of tests.

The doctors admitted Gavai for a surgery on July 22 and during the six-hour-long operation, they were shocked to see innumerous mustard seed-to-rock-sized teeth bulging out of a cyst- like formation. They even discovered a rock-like formation in the affected tooth.

The surgeons had to go through careful breaking down of the hard structures so as not to put pressure on the jaw bone.

"Intra-operatively we found that, once the raw area we opened at that region means at the level of last molar and second molar, there was a thick cyst wall. We tried to inoculate the region but it accidentally ruptured and so many tiny things started coming out and those were denticles. Very minute ones, the smallest one was of the size of a mustard seed," said Vandana, a dental surgeon who performed the surgery.

The case, which was dubbed as benign tumour of the tooth by doctors, might just lead the teenager to the pathway of making a record.

The 'Complex Composite Odonntom' condition Gavai was suffering from, causes immense pain and difficulty in eating and swallowing, but is not fatal.

The teenager is being fed through a rice pipe now and is fine, according to doctors attending him. However, it will be another week before he is discharged from the hospital.