FAST DISSOLVING TABLETS: A REVIEW

Fast dissolving tablets emerge as one of the popular and widely accepted dosage forms, especially for pediatric patients because of incomplete development of the muscular and nervous system and a case of geriatric patients suffering from Parkinson’s disorder or hand tremors. Few solid dosage forms like capsules and tablets are present days facing the problems like difficulty in swallowing (dysphagia), resulting in many incidences of non-compliance and making the therapy ineffective. Oral dosage form and oral route are the most preferred route of administration for various drugs have limitations like first-pass metabolism, psychiatric patients, bedridden and uncooperative patients. FDTs are disintegrating or dissolve quickly in the saliva without a need of water. Fast dissolving tablets are designed to dissolve in saliva remarkably faster, within a few seconds (less than 60 seconds), and those are real fast-dissolving tablets. FDTs formulations contain super disintegrants to enhance the disintegration rate of a tablet in the buccal cavity. FDTs have advantages such as easy portability and manufacturing, accurate dosing, good chemical and physical stability and an ideal alternative for geriatric and pediatric patients. FDTs have disintegrated quickly, absorb faster so, in vitro drug release time improve and this property of drugs (dosage form) enhanced bioavailability. FDT formulations have the advantage of both conventional tablet formulation and liquid dosage form. There are several technologies that are conventional or patented based on spray drying, cotton candy process, sublimation, melt granulation, direct compression freezes drying/lyophilization, phase transition process, mass extrusion, etc. have been developed for manufacturing of FDTs. In this review contain brief information about FDTs including definition, advantages, needs or requirements of FDTs, salient features of FDTs, limitations, challenges to developing FDT, marketed formulations of fast dissolving tablets, etc.