Chennai, Jul 31 (IANS): Radiation from mobile phone towers could be a reason for increasing oral problems in people, said a doctor at Saveetha Dental College and Hospital here on Wednesday.

"The environment plays an important part in the health and oral health. Even the radiation from the cell phone towers can be a reason for oral problems," said Pratibha Ramani, Professor and Head of Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology at the hospital.

She was speaking to the media after extraction of 526 teeth from the mouth of a seven-year-old boy in a rare surgery performed at the hospital.

"As part of a research currently on in some localities near our college in Chennai, we have taken mouth smears of about 250 people living near cell towers. The mouth smears will check for presence of micronuclei, which would indicate something more happening in a cell than in a normal human cell," said Ramani.

"We found the presence of micronuclei in 10 per cent of the smears taken," Ramani said.

Rakesh Kumar Sharma, Vice Chancellor, Saveetha Institute fo Medial and Technical Sciences said: "The presence of micronuclei indicates something wrong with a cell and increases the risk of oral disorders.

According to Ramani, her team decided to conduct the research after Central government issued guidelines for cell towers recently.