True: The Boy with 526 Teeth

Unfortunately, this news is indeed real. The boy had a sac in his mouth where some of his teeth should be. After being surgically removed, it was found containing over 500 teeth. Most of these were quite small, but still had the appearance of teeth.

The boy was suffering from compound composite odontoma, a rare but nonetheless documented disease (warning: link contains some disturbing images). The sac removed from the boy’s was a noncancerous tumor. Like cancerous tumors, it’s a growth that contains cells that aren’t reproducing like they should. In this case, instead of spreading cancer cells throughout the body, the tumor is producing a bunch of teeth. Too many teeth, one might say. The boy recovered fine, leaving the operating room with 21 teeth.