Indian boy has 232 teeth removed from his mouth (really)

Dental surgeons have extracted 232 teeth from the mouth of a 17-year-old boy in India in an operation that took over seven hours.

Ashik Divai, who lives in a village near Amravati in central India, had been complaining of a swollen mouth for 18 months before seeking medical attention in Mumbai on Monday, according to the BBC.

After pulling the teeth, which they described as 'little white pearls', doctors believe the teenager may have broken a world record.

"Ashik's malaise was diagnosed as a complex composite odontoma where a single gum forms lots of teeth. It's a sort of benign tumour," explained Dr Sunanda Dhiware, head of JJ Hospital's dental department.

At first, we couldn't cut it out so we had to use the basic chisel and hammer to take it out.

• Dr Sunanda Dhiware

"Once we opened it, 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," she added.

After the successful operation, Ashik was left with a more normal amount of 28 teeth.

The Mumbai Mirror reports that the surgery, which would have cost around Rs40,000 (£391), was covered by the state government's health insurance scheme.

(Pictures: AFP)