Mumbai: In a rare case that has surprised even the medical fraternity, more than 232 teeth were extracted from the mouth of a 17-year-old Buldhana boy in a seven-hour-long operation on Monday in JJ Hospital’s dental department.
The boy, Ashik Gavai, who studies in Class 10, hails from a lower middle class family. Dr Vandana Thoravade, ENT. surgeon, JJ Hospital, said, “Two hundred and thirty two was the number of teeth we could count. There were many more. The total number of teeth must be more than 350.”
“The boy had been suffering for the past one-and-a-half years and the fact that he had lived with it for such a long time was shocking. The highest number of teeth extracted by doctors has been 25 or 32. This is the first time we have extracted so many teeth from the mouth of a patient. We will be publishing papers on it. This is a world record,” added Dr Thoravade.
Dr Reshma Hanwate. The doctors were shocked to find tooth after tooth hidden in the form of a crown.
Dr Thoravade said, “Wisdom teeth usually erupt between 17 and 25 years of age. For some people, they erupt normally while for others, they may be impacted by the fact that we have a smaller jawline. In the boy’s case, the wisdom teeth were completely buried in the jawbone giving rise to multiple roots and hence, multiple teeth.”
Apart from the cluster of teeth the doctors extracted, there was one small but extremely brittle tooth, which resisted every modern technique. “We had to resort to the age-old, now outdated, chisel-mallet procedure to break down that hard formation as it was putting immense pressure on the jaw bone and surrounding healthy teeth,” explained Dr Thoravade.
Describing the case as a development anomaly and one of the rarest in the history of medical science, Dr Thoravade said, “The highest number of teeth extracted by doctors has been 25 or 32. This is the first time we have extracted so many teeth from the mouth of a patient. The study will be taken up for further research and we will be publishing papers on it. This is a world record.”
The boy’s state has been confirmed as normal by doctors and his teeth growth has been controlled. “He also has a new face now. He looks absolutely different so much so that even his mother was not able to recognise him,” said Dr Thoravade.
