A 7 year old boy complaining of jaw pain found to have 526 teeth inside his mouth, according to the hospital in India where he was treated.
The boy was admitted in the southern city of Chennai due to swelling & pain near his molars in his lower right jaw.
When doctors scanned & x-rayed his mouth, they found a sac embedded in his lower jaw filled-with “abnormal teeth“ Dr. Prathiba Ramani, the head of Oral & Maxillofacial Pathology at Saveetha Dental College & Hospital.
While the surgery to get rid of the teeth happened, doctors needed time to individually examine each tooth before they might confirm their findings.
After discovering the sac, two surgeons removed it from the boy’s mouth. Then Ramani’s team took 4–5 hours to empty the sac to confirm its contents & discovered hundreds of teeth.
“There were total-of 526 teeth starting from 0.1 millimetres (.004 inches) to 15 millimeters (0.6 inches). Even the littlest piece had a crown, root & enamel coat indicating it was a tooth” she said.
The boy was released three days after the surgery & is predicted to form a full recovery, Ramani said.
Ramani said the boy was affected by a really rare condition called compound composite odontoma. She said what caused the condition is unclear but it might be genetic or it might be due to environmental factors like radiation.
The boy actually may have had the additional teeth for a few-time. His parents told doctors that that they had noticed swelling in his jaw when he was as young as 3, but they couldn’t do much about it because he wouldn’t stay still or allow doctors to examine him.
Dr. P. Senthilnathan, head of the hospital Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery Department and one among two surgeons who operated on the boy detailed the procedure.
“Under general anaesthesia, we drilled into jaw from the top,” he said. “We didn’t break the bone from the sides, meaning reconstruction surgery wasn’t required. The sac was removed. You’ll consider it as a sort of balloon with small pieces inside.”
Dr. Senthilnathan said the discovery showed & it had been important to hunt treatment for dental issues as early as possible.
Awareness about dental & oral health was improving, he said, though access in rural areas remained problematic.
“Earlier, things like not as many dentists, lack of education, poverty meant that there wasn’t the maximum amount of awareness. These problems are still there.
“You can see people in cities have better awareness but people that are in rural areas aren’t as educated or ready to afford good dental health.”
In Ravindrath’s case, all turned-out very well; the boy now features a healthy count of 21 teeth, Dr. Senthilnathan said.
