“People who are in rural areas are not as educated or able to afford good dental health.”
A boy in India has had over 500 teeth removed from his skull after complaining of a “pain” in his jaw.
The seven-year-old was admitted to the Chennai hospital last month due to a swelling in his lower jaw.
Following an x-ray, doctors discovered that the boy had a sac embedded in his jaw that was filled with an “abnormal” amount of teeth – 526 to be exact.
CNN reports that two surgeons removed the sac from the boy’s mouth last month. It then took them between four and five hours to empty the sac’s contents.
Dr. Prathiba Ramani, the head of Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology at Saveetha Dental College and Hospital, said there were “a total of 526 teeth ranging from 0.1 millimetres to 15 millimetres.”
“Even the smallest piece had a crown, root and enamel coat indicating it was a tooth.”
It is believed that the seven-year-old was suffering from a rare dental condition called compound composite odontoma.
The cause of the condition is not known, but it thought to be as a result of either genetics or radiation.
Dr. P. Senthilnathan, one of the surgeons who carried out the procedure, said that poverty and a lack of education is hindering people from having an awareness of such abnormal conditions.
“You can see people in cities have better awareness but people who are in rural areas are not as educated or able to afford good dental health,” he said.
The boy has since returned home. He now has a healthy 21 teeth in his jaw.
