A dentist in Chennai, India has removed 526 miniature teeth from the mouth of a seven-year-old boy. The boy complained to his mother that he had toothaches. She took the boy to a dentist, who found the boy had hundreds of tiny teeth in a sac (a small, empty space) inside the boy's jaw. The sac was near the molar area at the back of the jaw. Professor Pratibha Ramani, the head of a dental department at the hospital, spoke to reporters about the surgery the little boy had. She told reporters: "The teeth were of variable sizes that ranged from the smallest at 0.1mm to the largest at 3mm. They all had a small crown, enamel and a small root." She said the boy suffered from a very rare dental problem.
The operation to remove the tiny teeth from the boy's jaw took over five hours. Professor Ramani spoke about how her team of surgeons removed the teeth. She said: "We had to drill down into the top of the lower jaw, make a window and remove the sac." She added: "As the sac was going deeper into the tissue, the size of the teeth was becoming very small." Despite having over 500 teeth in his jaw, the boy did not suffer a lot of pain. Ms Ramani said: "We had to take a lot of counseling sessions with him for him to undergo surgery. We have a very good counseling team who have expertise in dealing with kids." The boy now has 21 teeth. He is doing well and is no longer in pain.
