Ashik Gavai, Indian Teen, Has 232 Teeth Removed In Possible World-Record Operation
Surgeons in Mumbai, India, removed 232 teeth from the mouth of teenager Ashik Gavai, and it may just be a world record.
Gavai, 17, went to JJ Hospital Monday with a swollen right jaw, reports Agence France-Presse. Doctors found that the youth had complex odontoma, a condition in which "the various odontogenic tissues appear in a haphazard arrangement that bears no resemblance to teeth."
"We operated on Monday and it took us almost seven hours. We thought it may be a simple surgery, but once we opened it there were multiple pearl-like teeth inside the jaw bone," head of dentistry Sunanda Dhivare-Palwankar told AFP. "I think it could be a world record.”
Dhivare-Palwankar said the most teeth ever before surgically extracted from a jawbone was 37, according to medical records. She said her team of doctors removed 232 from the 17-year-old’s mouth. Most adults have 32 teeth in total.
The doctor added she had “not seen anything like it before in my 30-year career” and the dentistry department at JJ Hospital plans to speak with Guinness World Records about the case.
Suresh Gavai, Ashik’s father, said they sought medical help Monday and wound up at the hospital. The BBC reported Gavai had been suffering for 18 months at home in his village in western India.
"I was worried that it may turn out to be cancer so I brought him to Mumbai," Gavai told the Mumbai Mirror.
Doctors said they found a large “marble-like” structure inside the boy’s jawbone and had to “chisel out” and remove the teeth in fragments. Dhivare-Palwankar said the operation was successful and Gavai’s jawbone should heal without any deformities.
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