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Casablanca - Ashik Gavai, a 17-year-old boy from India, used to suffer from a tumor deep in his lower jaw. Since his successful operation, he can finally live without pain.
Ashik’s father Suresh Gavai waited 18 months for his son to receive medical treatment for his swelling right jaw. “I was worried that it may turn out to be cancer so I brought him to Mumbai,” the father told BBC World news.
According to the same source, the boy’s doctor, Dr. Dhiware, said: “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.”
She continued: “According to medical literature available on the condition, it is known to affect the upper jaw and a maximum of 37 teeth have been extracted from the tumour in the past. But in Ashik's case, the tumor was found deep in the lower jaw and it had hundreds of teeth.”
Moreover, the medical team has never seen Ashik’s case before and described it as very rare.
Furthermore, Dr. Dhiware said: “Once we opened [the tumor], little pearl-like teeth started coming out, one-by-one. Initially, we were collecting them. They were really like small white pearls. But then we started to get tired. We counted 232 teeth."
The teenager had to endure a seven hour-long operation, in which two surgeons and two assistants kept pulling the extra teeth out of his mouth. Ashik is now left with twenty-eight healthy teeth.
Equally important to know, adults have 32 teeth, though it is possible to be born with less or more. Adults who have had their wisdom teeth removed will have usually 28 teeth.
