Indian doctors were at their wit’s end after excising as many as 526 teeth from a seven-year-old’s palate in Chennai.

The young patient was only three when his lower right jaw started to well up but was left undiagnosed for four years as his parents lacked the right knowledge.

The doctors diagnosed it to be a rare case of "compound composite ondontome", the boy was brought to the hospital with a swelling in his lower right jaw.

Speaking to Newslions Media, Dr. P. Senthilnathan, Professor -Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery at the Saveetha Dental College and Hospital, said, "When the parents brought the boy to our hospital, we undertook a special investigation and performed radiographs. A special CT scan- Cone Beam CT scan- was used for the upper and lower jaw and we noticed that there is a lot of rudimentary tooth present inside."

"After a thorough evaluation of the scan, we planned and performed the surgery," he added. "The operation was performed using general anesthesia. We have a pediatric anesthetist and he managed it well."

"Once that was done, we opened the tumour. The team was able to remove the entire tumour from the jaw. We formed a two-part plan. If the jaw was to break during surgery, we had planned to reconstruct it or follow a conservative method.

"The operation panned out very well. The baby also recovered within a day and was discharged three days after the operation," the doctor added.

According to the doctors, the patient's family was worried that the swelling was carcinogenic. An X-ray and CT-scan of the boy's lower right jaw showed a lot of rudimentary teeth following which the doctors decided on the surgery.

A team of doctors operated on the boy for five-long hours and successfully removed 526 teeth-like structures from his mouth.

"The sack, weighing about 200 grams, was carefully removed and was later found to contain 526 teeth -- small, medium and big sized,” said Dr Senthilnathan.

Dr. Pratibha Ramani, Professor and Head of Department of oral and maxillofacial pathology, said, “Social consciousness on emerging environmental hazards is imperative. Every tissue information is patient’s right, surgical decision making is the key and final diagnostic expert is the pathologist.”

According to the doctors, this is the first ever case documented in the world in which in an individual has been found to have so many minute teeth.

Though some were very tiny particles, the doctors said, they had the properties of teeth. It took five long hours for the doctors to remove all the minute teeth from the sack. "It was reminiscent of pearls in an oyster," the doctors said.

"The boy was normal three days after the surgery," said Pratibha Ramani, Professor and Head of the Department, Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology.

According to the doctors, this is the first ever case documented in the world in which in an individual has been found to have so many minute teeth.