PROSTHETIC REHABILITATION OF A PATIENT WITH NEAR TOTAL MAXILLECTOMY USING A HOLLOW BULB OBTURATOR: A CASE REPORT Archana Vyas 1 , Dhanasekar 2 , I. N. Aparna 2 , Prabhu Nayana 1 1 Department of Prosthodontics and Implantology, Jodhpur Dental College General Hospital, Boranada, Narnadi, India 2 Department of Prosthodontics and Implantology, Manipal College of Dental Sciences, Manipal, Manipal University, India CORRESPONDING AUTHOR: mpnayana@yahoo.com ABSTRACT Aim: To prosthetically rehabilitate maxillary defect in a patient with near total maxillectomy using hollow bulb obturator. Case description: Authors report a case of 64-year-old male patient with near total maxillectomy with respect to the left side who was referred for the prosthetic rehabilitation. Conclusions: The hollow bulb definitive obturator prosthesis rehabilitated the patient in terms of masticatory function, phonetics and esthetics. The hollow bulb design ensured patient comfort due to its decreased weight. KEYWORDS: hollow bulb obturator, maxillectomy, prosthetic rehabilitation http://dx.doi.org/10.19177/jrd.v5e120176-10 INTRODUCTION Surgical intervention for the eradication of maxillary neoplasm and the consequent defect results in an abnormal oro-antralcommunication 1,2 . This leads to esthetic, functional and psychological disabilities.Prosthetic rehabilitation of such patients aims at fabricating obturators which create partition between nasal and oral cavities and improve deglutition, speech, mastication and esthetics 3 . Maxillary obturator prosthesis, a frequent treatment modality, functions to the closure of the maxillectomy defect and re-creates separation between oro and naso-pharynx 1 . It also facilitates improvement in mastication, deglutition and speech intelligibility 4 . However, the undesirable weight of the prosthesis is often a dislocatingforce and affects its retention, stability and support 5 . Hollowing the obturator bulb to decrease the prosthesis weight is an effective method. Various techniques of reducing the load of definitive obturator bulb have been proposed. As most of these techniques are complicated, time- consuming and expensive, this article explains a simple method of fabricating a light-weight hollow bulb obturator for a partially edentulous hemi-maxillectomy patient. CASE REPORT A 64 year old male patient was surgically operated for the squamous cell carcinoma of left maxilla and was referred for the prosthetic rehabilitation. Medical and dental history revealed surgical resection of the anterior and left posterior maxillary alveolar bone due to