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. The convenience of administration and improved patient compliance are important in the design of oral drug delivery system which remains the preferred route of drug delivery inspite of various disadvantages. One such problem can be solved in the novel drug delivery system by formulating “mouth dissolving tablets” (MDTs) which disintegrates or dissolves rapidly without water within few seconds in the mouth due to the action of superdisintegrant or maximizing pore structure in the formulation. Mouth dissolving tablets are advantageous particularly for pediatric, geriatric and mentally ill patients who have difficulty in swallowing conventional tablets and capsules. The review describes the various formulation aspects, superdisintegrants employed and technologies developed for MDTs, along with various excipients, evaluation tests, marketed formulation and drugs used in this research area.