In the world’s first case, around 526 teeth of varying sizes were extracted from a seven-year-old boy’s right lower jaw in a five-hour surgery carried out by doctors in the Indian city of Chennai.
According to Press Trust of India, the doctors claim it was the world’s first case in which such a large number of teeth were found and extracted from a single site.
Dr. Pratibha Ramani, Head of Department of oral and maxillofacial pathology at the Saveetha Dental College and Hospital, a private hospital and college, stated that the boy was brought to the hospital with a complaint of a swelling in the jaw.
“The issue was noticed when the child was three years old. It was ignored then as he did not cooperate.. four years later, it took a lot of efforts to convince him for the surgery as the swelling increased,” Ramani told PTI.
Dr Senthilnathan said: “A 4×3 cm tumour was removed from the lower right side of his jaw, after that, we came to know that 526 teeth were present there.”
Though the size varies, we call it teeth because every piece had elements of teeth (enamel and root) in it, she stated.
She said the boy was discharged within three days after surgery.
In 2014, there was a similar case in Mumbai where 232 teeth were extracted from a teenage boy’s mouth.
“This is the first such case in the world where 526 teeth were removed from a single site – right lower jaw.”
Seven pathologists and five surgeons were part of the operation that took five hours. According to the hospital, the surgery, which would have cost between Rs 75,000 and Rs one lakh, was done free of cost under a Tamil Nadu government scheme.
