A 26-year-old Indian woman, Kalpana Balan, has recently set a Guinness World Record for the highest number of teeth in a female’s mouth, with a total of 38 teeth. This surpasses the typical adult count by six and includes four extra mandibular (lower jaw) teeth and two extra maxillary (upper jaw) teeth. These additional teeth emerged during her teenage years, causing some challenges with eating due to food getting trapped between them.
Despite her parents’ surprise at the discovery of the extra teeth and their recommendation for extraction, Kalpana’s dentist suggested waiting until they grew out more. Although there were some challenges, she ultimately decided to keep them and is now proud of achieving the Guinness World Records title as a lifetime achievement.
Kalpana still has two unfilled teeth, which means she may have the potential to extend her record in the future. The medical term for having extra teeth is hyperdontia or polydontia, and it affects up to 3.8% of the world’s population. The exact cause of hyperdontia is not known, but it is thought to result from a malfunction in the tooth formation process.
For male record holders in this category, Evano Mellone from Canada holds the record with 41 teeth. This achievement is just one example of many interesting news stories that have been making headlines lately.