India doctors remove 232 teeth from boy's mouth

Boy, 17, had a rare condition in which a single gum forms many

(YouTube)

Now that's a mouthful.

Doctors in India removed 232 teeth from the mouth of a 17-year-old boy during an operation that took seven hours to complete, Agence France-Presse reported.

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Ashik Gavai was brought to Mumbai's JJ Hospital with swelling in his right jaw.

The teen had been suffering for 18 months, and was brought to the city from his village after doctors there couldn't figure out what was wrong, BBC News reported.

Turns out, he was suffering from a rare condition.

"Ashik's malaise was diagnosed as a complex composite odontoma where a single gum forms lots of teeth. It's a sort of benign tumor," JJ Hospital's Dr. Sunanda Dhiware told the BBC.

Doctors had to use a hammer and chisel to get into the gum. Then, little "pearl-sized" teeth started coming out.

Ashik now has 28 teeth and is doing just fine.

His father, Suresh Gavai, told the Mumbai Mirror his son had complained of severe pain a month ago.

"I was worried that it may turn out to be cancer so I brought him to Mumbai," he said.


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