Chennai: In rare surgery, dentists extract 526 teeth from seven-year-old’s mouth

The doctors soon found that the boy was suffering from a rare case of ‘compound composite odontoma’. The teeth, which are not visible outside the mouth, had to be surgically removed.

Doctors from Saveetha Dental College and Hospital claimed that the boy’s lower right jaw has had no permanent teeth until now. (ANI Photo)

Hospital authorities told indianexpress.com that the surgery, which was performed at zero cost, lasted five hours. Surgeons cut open the tumour weighing 200 grams and extracted 526 teeth of various sizes, ranging from minuscule teeth to medium and large-sized ones. The dentists said each abnormal tooth had a crown, root and enamel coating.

Since the child had been brought in at an early stage, the dentists were able to extract the tumour in a conventional surgery after administering general anaesthesia. Following the surgery, which did not need jaw reconstruction, doctors retained Ravindran’s normal teeth and said he would require two permanent molar implants after he turned 16 years.

Surgeons told Indianexpress.com that the surgery did not require any jaw reconstruction.

Doctors said the child’s parents had noticed the swelling when he was three years old and had taken him to a government hospital in the state. The swelling was left undiagnosed after Ravindran did not sit for the tests.

Doctors from Saveetha Dental College and Hospital claimed that the boy’s lower right jaw has had no permanent teeth until now.

Surgeons from Saveetha Dental College and Hospital extracted 526 teeth from the jaw of a seven-year-old boy in Chennai recently. (Express photo)

While the dentists were unable to point the cause of the abnormal growth, doctors said exposure to radiation from mobile towers and genetics were probable factors.

A case of compound composite odontoma was earlier recorded in Mumbai where dentists removed 232 teeth from the upper jaw of a 17-year-old boy in 2014.