Clinically, the management of severy atrophic maxilla might represent a significant challenge for the attending dentists and surgeons to successfully perform and achieve fabricated complete maxillary dentures. Making a hollow denture base for these defects has also been previously reported as a valid approach that can be used to decrease the weight of the maxillary prosthesis. Many modalities have been proposed for these procedures with favorable outcomes, and variable events of disadvantages and adverse events. This literature review aims to collect enough evidence regarding the different reported techniques of the hollow maxillary denture, according to the different studies. Many techniques have been previously reported as using magnets, using implants, intramucosal inserts, springs, suction disks, lightweight dentures, and modified impression techniques. Many materials have been previously used with the 3D spacers of the lightweight denture techniques as dental stone, silicon putty, cellophane-wrapped asbestos, light-body coated gauze, modeling clay, salt, thermocol, caramel, and glycerine soap. Favoring one of the modalities over the other requires the inauguration of future studies with an adequate sample size to validate the efficacy and safety of these modalities. All of this information is furtherly discussed within the manuscript based on the collected evidence from the different studies in the literature.

Using bone grafts has been described in the literature for multiple decades and has been applied within the different medical fields. Furthermore, in the field of dentistry, evidence shows that these approaches have been widely used for different purposes, including the management of craniofacial defects and dental implantology. However, it should be noted that many disadvantages have been reported for the different tissue sources of bone grafting in dental implants despite the wide acceptance of the outcomes and favorable prognosis with these materials. Therefore, many efforts were conducted to innovate further approaches with reduced disadvantages and favorable outcomes. Our present study discusses the types and tissue sources of bone grafts in the settings of dental implants. This can provide dentists with better information and enhanced knowledge levels about the tissue sources of dental implants, which should help them decide the most appropriate source with the least adverse events. Different tissue sources were reported in the literature, including materials that are no longer used for their disadvantages and associated complications. Among the proposed materials, biomimetics has been reported with favorable outcomes and reduced adverse events, and using combinations of these materials can furtherly enhance the prognosis. Further research is needed to innovate additional modalities that can overcome the currently reported limitations.

The epidemiology of edentulism is different across the different communities and the prevalence rates are also significantly different and it can be affected by various factors. There have been many investigations that reported the prevalence rates of edentulism across the different countries globally. However, not many investigations were published in Saudi Arabia and the published ones also report different findings. In the present study, we have reviewed the current studies in the literature to investigate the prevalence of edentulism and associated factors in Saudi Arabia. Our results indicated that the reported rates were conflicting among the different reports across the Kingdom and some of these rates are lower than other rates that were reported in some countries but higher than others also. Therefore, further nationwide research was still needed to formulate better evidence and help draw adequate interventions for the most vulnerable groups. Age, gender, educational levels, regional residency, socioeconomic status, depression and diabetes have all been reported to be correlated with edentulism. The prevalence of the condition has been reported to be highest among older age groups, while evidence is contradicting about the difference between both genders. Therefore, targeting vulnerable populations with early interventions can reduce the incidence rates and enhance the quality of life among these populations.