7-year-old boy had 526 teeth removed from his mouth
A 7-year-old boy in India had a legion of teeth removed from his mouth — 526 teeth, to be exact. The unusual surgery was performed at Saveetha Dental College and Hospital in Chennai, India.
The boy was brought to the hospital with swelling in his lower right jaw, and he was found to be suffering from "compound composite ondontome," according to a press release from the hospital.
He was first taken to a hospital for a swollen jaw at the age of 3, but he refused to cooperate for any investigative procedures at the time. So his condition was left undiagnosed for four years.
When he came back at age 7, his parents worried that he might have cancer in his jaw. The doctors decided to operate, and found what they described as a "bag like mass, which was removed in its entirety," according to the press release. The sack weighed almost half a pound. Inside were 526 tooth-like structures.
"It was reminiscent of pearls in an oyster," the doctors said. It took five hours of meticulous searching to remove every single extra tooth.
They ranged in size from 1mm to 15mm and resembled a tooth with a crown covered by enamel and a root-like structure. It was unlike anything the doctors had seen before. "This pandora box of miniature teeth is a jewel on our crown," doctors said.
They say this is the first time ever that so many teeth were seen in a single individual.