An Overview on fast Dissolving Tablet

About author
Anamika Sharma*, Vipin Kumar Agarwal, Arti Kesarwani 
Department of Pharmacy, Invertis University, Bareilly, India.
Department of Pharmacy, N.K.B.R college of pharmacy, Meerut, India.
Email: [email protected]

Abstract  
Oral route having the highest patient compliance is regarded as the most convenient,safest and also the most economical method of drug delivery. Fast dissolving tablets is one such most advantageous example of the oral drug delivery. These tablets readily dissolve or disintegrate in the saliva i.e. within <60sec without the need for water. They have been formulated for pediatric, geriatric and bedridden patients. These type of dosage forms are also ideal for active patients who are busy and traveling and may not have access to water. FDTs have gained considerable attention for those patients who have difficulties in swallowing because of dysphagia, hand tremors problems and have additional advantage for unconscious, young patients with underdeveloped muscular and nervous system.This review describes the various advantages, limitations, desired characteristics, formulation aspects, super-disintegrants employed, technologies developed for FDTs, evaluation tests, and marketed formulations.           
Introduction 
Solid dosage forms like tablets, capsules are the most popular form among all other dosage forms existing today because of its convenience of compactness, easy manufacturing and self administration. It is difficult to swallow tablets as well as hard gelatin capsules and also  when water is not available in the case of motion sickness, allergic attacks of coughing during the common cold and bronchitis. For these reasons tablets which rapidly dissolve or disintegrate in the oral cavity play a important role  and are called fast dissolving tablets. These tablets disintegrate instantaneously when put on tongue, releasing the drug, which dissolve or disperses  within 60 seconds in the saliva in the absence of water. FDTs are not formulated for people who have swallowing difficulties, but also are ideal for active people. Fast dissolving tablets are also called as mouth dissolving tablets, melt-in-mouth tablets, orodispersible tablets, rapimelts, porous tablets, quick dissolving tablets etc.some drugs are absorbed from the mouth, pharynx and oesophagus as the saliva passes down into the stomach. In such cases, bioavailability of drug is significantly greater than those observed from conventional tablet dosage form. The faster the drug into the solution, quicker the absorption and onset of clinical effect. The use of superdisintegrants like croscarmellose, sodium starch glycolate, polyvinylpyrollidone, crosspovidone etc which provide rapid disintegration of tablet and release drug in saliva is the basic approach in development of FDTs. Moreover, the amount of drug that is subjected to first pass metabolism is reduced as compared to standard tablet. Patients for whom chewing is difficult and painful can use FDTs easily. Fast dissolving tablets can also be used easily by children who have lost their teeth but donot have full use of their permanent teeth. The technologies used for manufacturing fast- dissolving tablets are freeze-drying, tablet molding, spray- drying, sugar-based excipients, sublimation, tablet compression, disintegration addition and many other patended technologies. Recent market study indicate that more than half of the worldwide population prefer FDTs as compare to other dosage form today.