NEW DELHI: A 30-year-old woman who could not open her mouth properly since birth due to a rare fusion of the jaw joint with the skull bone underwent a successful surgery at the Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, according to its administration.
Astha Mongia's mouth opening was so small that she was not even able to touch her tongue with her hand, the hospital said in a statement. "In the last 30 years, she was unable to eat solid food and had difficulty speaking. She had lost almost all her teeth due to a dental infection," it said.
Doctors said the patient had a tumour over the right half of the face, orbit and forehead, making it "such a complicated case that various leading hospitals in India, the United Kingdom and Dubai refused a surgical solution".
Dr. Rajeev Ahuja, senior plastic surgeon, SGRH, said, ‘For such patients to open their mouth, both the condyles (ball like head of jaw joint) have to be removed. Many a times a tongue-like bony extension in front of ball joint known as Coronoid Process also has to be either removed surgically or at least fractured but in her case this was easier said than done because there was bunch of vessels surrounding the Coronoid Process on the right side.”
After the successful surgery, Mongia's mouth opening increased to 3 centimetres. A normal person has a mouth opening of 4 to 6 centimetres. "It is a miracle that I am able to open my mouth as well as can eat without any difficulty," the statement quoted Astha Mongia, who is senior manager in a government-run bank.