Surgeons
operating on lump in Ashik Gavai's jaw found many 'pearl-like teeth' and a
solid 'marble-like' growth
The Guardian, AFP, Mumbai, Thursday 24 July 2014
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Surgeons examine the 232 teeth and 'marble-like' material removed from Ashik Gavai's jaw. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images |
Surgeons in
Mumbai have removed 232 teeth from the mouth of an Indian teenager in what they
believe may be a world-record operation.
Ashik
Gavai, 17, sought medical help for a swelling on the right side of his lower
jaw and the case was referred to the city's JJ hospital, where they found he
was suffering from a condition known as complex odontoma, said head of
dentistry Sunanda Dhivare-Palwankar.
"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," she said.
After
removing those they found a larger "marble-like" structure that they
struggled to shift and eventually had to "chisel out" and remove in
fragments.
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Some of the teeth Indian surgeons found when they operated on the growth in Ashik Gavai's jaw. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images |
Ashik's
father, Suresh Gavai, said the family had been worried that the swelling was a
malignant growth.
"I was
worried that it may turn out to be cancer so I brought him to Mumbai,"
Gavai told the Mumbai Mirror newspaper.
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 Gavai's mouth.
"I
think it could be a world record," she said.
Gavai's jawbone
structure was maintained during the operation so it should heal without
deformities, the surgeon added.
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