Aim: To assess the sources, level of awareness, and need for information about dental implants among patients attending the outpatient ward

No abstract

While dealing with a grave second wave of ongoing pandemic COVID-19, India also saw a surge in cases of COVID-19-associated mucormycosis, a systematic fungal infection caused by the Mucorales species. Mucormycosis is a highly angioinvasive, rapidly spreading fungal infection. In numerous cases of mucormycosis, bilateral subtotal maxillectomy was performed due to unpredictable and indefinable advancement of fungus clinically. Effective obturation of bilateral maxillectomy defect is a difficult task and as this is a relatively uncommon surgical problem, insufficient data are available on the construction of delayed surgical obturator for such cases. The aim of this article is to discuss the design of Z-spring-retained delayed surgical obturator which is easy to fabricate, easy to rectify, cost-effective, and comfortable for the patients compared to previous spring-retained obturators. This surgical obturator is retained through Z-spring made of 1.02 mm thick wire. Due to the thick gauge, this spring counters postsurgery trismus and develops the seal between the acrylic plate and dorsum of the tongue during deglutition thus helps the patient in taking a soft diet initially. Novelty in this case is the design of the spring, which makes it beneficial for both patient and prosthodontist.

fabrication of definitive prosthesis. Delayed surgical obturator is also a critical part of the rehabilitation of patients during an early postoperative period as it improves the contour of the palate aiding in speech and swallowing. Therefore, in this case series, different methods of hollowing of delayed surgical obturator were tried in patients with extensive maxillary defects secondary to mucormycosis. Case DesCription Case 1A 57-year-old male was referred to the Department of Prosthodontics from the ENT Department for fabrication of a delayed surgical obturator for an acquired defect of the maxilla after surgical BaCkgrounDMucormycosis, a rare fungal infection associated with diabetes, had become much more common as a result of the lethal cocktail of COVID-19 infection and the widespread use of corticosteroids in India. It is caused by the Mucorales fungi, which have an affinity for blood vessel walls. They grow quickly once they acquire access to the mucous membranes, invading surrounding blood vessels and causing vascular thrombosis and necrosis. 1 The management includes surgical debridement of necrotic tissue with antifungal medication (amphotericin B, posaconazole, and isavuconazole; most common). 2 Extensive maxillary defects may occur after surgical excision and debridement of the affected areas due to the invasive nature of mucor. Rehabilitation of such defects is extremely challenging. At the expense of its shape, size, and weight, the obturator is stretched vertically to engage the surgical defect and horizontally to contact the bony or soft tissue undercuts in larger surgical defects. 3 Increased weight of the obturator can make it nonretentive due to gravity and endanger its function. As a result, hollow bulb obturators are made to reduce the prosthesis' weight.Based on Aramany's classif ication, Wu and Schaaf 4 constructed different types of obturator prostheses (both solid and hollow) and assessed them for weight reduction. They found that hollow obturator prostheses reduced weight by a significant amount, ranging from 6.55 to 33.06% depending on the size of the defect. To make open and closed hollow obturator prostheses lightweight, a variety of approaches have been described 5-10 and most of these methods have their limitations, such as multiple processing techniques. In literature, these processes of hollowing of obturator were mostly done for