Thursday, August 01, 2019

526 teeth extracted, all at one time

Well, put this one firmly in the "weird" category. A 7-year old boy in the south Indian city of Chennai has had 526 teeth extracted - all at once!
Young Ravindranath had complained of a sore and swollen jaw for years and, when it continued to get worse, he finally went to see a dentist and then a maxillofacial surgeon. When his jaw was opened up, the surgeon found a kind of sac which was filled with over 500 tiny teeth, ranging  from 0.1mm to 15mm, many malformed, but all exhibiting the usual crown, root and enamel coating of regular teeth.
Apparently, this is a rare condition known as compound composite odontoma, where abnormal teeth can form inside a mouth tumour, but scientists have never seen anything like this many superfluous teeth. Ravindranath is now pain-free, and apparently relishing all the attention his teeth has brought him.

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