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
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.
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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