Mumbai: Doctors at Mumbai’s Sir J.J. Hospital were amazed when a teenager walked in with a large swelling on the right side of his face.
A series of tests and examinations were conducted on 17 year old, Ashik Gavai, which suggested a rare abnormal growth affecting the second molar on the lower right side of his jaw.
Reportedly, head of the hospital's dental department, Sunanda Dhivare-Palwankar said, “Initially, it was not very clear what it could be and so we decided to go in for surgery yesterday (Monday). As the surgery progressed, the team was shocked 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. At the final count, we had a total of 232 small pearlies, all independently developing as teeth, coming out of that lone molar!”
Moreover, there was another hard and rock-like formation inside the affected tooth in Gavai’s mouth, which could not be removed by a dentist’s drill.
Dhivare-Palwankar said they had to resort to age-old ‘chisel-mallet’ method to break that hard formation, which was exerting huge pressures on the jaw bone and surrounding healthy teeth.
This was first such case handled by the hospital and the operation took long seven hours. Dhivare-Palwankar explained the condition as a ‘developmental anomaly’, which had affected that particular molar at its formation stage and medically, the condition is called ‘Complex Composite Odonntom’ or a benign tumour of the tooth.
This condition causes difficulties in eating, swallowing and also lead to an ugly swelling on the face.
