Jagruti J. Karanjavkar

Buccal administration of drugs provides a convenient route of administration for both systemic and local drug actions. However, the preferred site for retentive oral transmucosal delivery systems and for sustained- and controlled-release delivery devices is the buccal mucosa, mainly because of the differences in permeability characteristics between the two regions and the buccal mucosa’s expanse of smooth and relatively immobile mucosa. The buccal mucosa offers excellent possibilities for the (long-term) delivery of suitable drugs, especially for metabolically unstable drugs, such as peptides. In the development of these buccal drug delivery systems, mucoadhesion of the device is a key element. Mucoadhesive polymers have been utilized in many different dosage forms in efforts to achieve systemic delivery of drugs through the buccal mucosa. Buccoadhesive drug delivery is relatively new drug delivery strategy; in this traditional polymers are replaced by novel bioadhesive polymers such as thiomers & lectins etc. to overcome limitation of traditional polymer.