A boy in India was brought in with swelling in his right jaw; doctors removed a myriad of tiny, toothlike growths caused by a condition called composite odontoma.
The Mumbai Mirror reports on the seven-hour operation.
Around a month ago, he complained of severe pain and his family feared he suffered from cancer, the boy's father, Suresh Gavai, said.
"I was worried that it may turn out to be cancer so I brought him to Mumbai," Gavai said, adding the surgery, conducted on Monday, was covered under the state government's health insurance scheme for the poor, Rajiv Gandhi Jeevdayi Arogya Yojana (RGJAY), which would have otherwise cost him around Rs 40,000 in a private hospital.
Arare medical condition, composite odontoma, has only been known to affect the upper jaw of the patients. "According to medical literature available on this condition, the condition has been known to be found in the upper jaw and a maximum of 25 teeth have been extracted from the tumour. But in Ashiq's case, the tumour was deep in the lower jaw and we removed more than 232 teeth," said Dr Sunanda Dhiware, head of the dental unit at J.J. Hospital.
