Boy with 526 teeth discovered
A 7-year-old-boy with 526 teeth inside his mouth has been discovered by doctors in an India hospital.
“He always complains of jaw pain,” the hospital that treated him said. The boy whose name was not mentioned, was admitted last month in the southern city of Chennai because of swelling and pain near his molars in his lower right jaw.
When doctors according to CNN, scanned and x-rayed his mouth, they found a sac embedded in his lower jaw filled with “abnormal teeth,” Dr. Prathiba Ramani, the head of Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology at Saveetha Dental College and Hospital, said.
According to Ramani, the boy was suffering from a very rare condition called compound composite odontoma, noting that it took his team about four to five hours to empty the sac after two surgeons had operated on the boy.
However, Dr. P. Senthilnathan, Head of the hospital’s Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Department and one of two surgeons who operated on the boy, detailed the procedure to CNN. “Under general anesthesia, we drilled into the jaw from the top,” he said.
“We did not break the bone from the sides, meaning reconstruction surgery was not required. The sac was removed. You can think of it as a kind of balloon with small pieces inside.”
Dr. Senthilnathan said the discovery showed it was important to seek treatment for dental issues as early as possible.
Awareness about dental and oral health was improving, he said, though access in rural areas remained problematic. (CNN/The Sun)
