A 7-year-old boy from India underwent a bizarre dental procedure after having 526 extra teeth removed from his mouth in July. MSN reports that P Ravindran was taken to the Saveetha Dental College and Hospital in Chennai, complaining of a swollen growth on his lower jaw.
Dentist s X-rayed the jaw of Ravindran where they shockingly found a “bag-like” tumor growing inside the boy’s mouth which contained 526 extra teeth.
“The tumor-like growth prevented permanent molar teeth growth in the boy in the affected side,” P Senthilnathan, a Professor at the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery at Saveetha Dental College told The New Indian Express. “[An] X-Ray and CT scan showed multiple, rudimentary teeth in a bag-like tissue. It took five hours to remove all the minute teeth.”
Luckily the bizarre growth was caught early without damaging the majority of his other teeth. The dentists claim that aside from the child’s molars all of his other teeth were coming in normally.
Ravindran underwent an extensive dental procedure to remove the 526 teeth which the Saveetha Dental College performed free of charge. “The teeth were in different sizes that varied between 0.1 mm to 15mm. They looked like pearls in an oyster. Even the smallest piece had a crown, root and an enamel coating like a tooth,” Prathibha Ramani, the college’s head of maxillofacial pathology told the Times of India. “We have never seen these many teeth in any one site.”
Ravindran suffers from a very-rare compound composite condition called odontoma. According to dental surgeons, biopsy results reveal just abnormal growth.
However, there could be a strong genetic [component], but we cannot rule out environmental factors such as radiation from mobile towers,” said Ramani.
A Saveetha Dental College study of people living by cellphone towers has revealed that more than 10 percent had “micronuclei changes” to their cells, which can cause “uncontrolled multiplication of cells and diseases,” according to Ramani.
Thankfully, at this time the young boy’s other teeth, minus the molars which will require implants in his teens are undamaged and are expected to come in just fine.
Other than a painful and lengthy trip to the dentist and a significant financial loss for the 526 teeth via tooth-fairy money Ravindran is expected to have a beautiful smile and quite an interesting story to share through-out his life.
Emma Taylor 
Sofia Bassett