Hi friends here I am with the topic "Medicated chewing gums"........ Generally chewing gums are used to clean the mouth and freshen the breath. But in recent days they have been developed as an attractive form of drug delivery for a wide range of active ingredients. In this blog I would like to just brief the issues regarding the advantages and disadvantages as well as applications of these medicated chewing gums. Let us start with a proper definition of this dosage form... "The medicated chewing gums are solid, single dose preparations with a base consisting mainly of gums that are intended to be chewed but not swallowed. They contain one or more active ingredients whish are released by chewing and are intended to be used for local treatment of mouth diseases or systemic delivery after absorption through buccal mucosa."[1] ADVANTAGES:[1] This dosage form has many advantages over most of the other dosage forms like: 1. Firstly it has very high acceptance even by children due it pleasant taste and appearance. 2. It has fast onset of action and very high bioavailability. 3. It avoids first pass metabolism and so has very side effects. 4. Higher compliance due to easy and discreet administration without water. 5. Suggested to patients who suffer from swallowing problems. 6. Above all these, the gum used in the formulation of these chewing gums donot reach the stomach and so the G.I.T suffers less from the excipients. DISADVATAGES: [1] 1. Continous and prolonged chewing of these gums may result in pain in facial muscles and earache in children. 2. These chewing gums adhere to the enamel dentures and the fillers. 3. There is a risk of over dosing with these gums. 4. Sorbitol used in the formulation of medicated chewing gums may result in flatulence and diarrhea. APPLICATIONS: [2] 1. Treatment of dental caries because, these gums control the release rate of active substances providing a prolonged local effect.[1] 2. Systemic therapy: This includes the treatment of muscular aches and head ache etc. It is also useful in smoking cessation, gums containing nicotine and lobeline are employed for this purpose. 3. Chewing gums formulate with either chromium or caffeine or guaran are useful in the treatment of obesity. 4. Along with all the above application they have several other indications like xerostomia, motion sickness, cold and cough and anxiety. References: [1].PHARMA BUZZ, AN ASSEMBLAGE OF PHARMACEUTICAL RESOURSES, A NATIONAL PHARMA MONTHLY MAGAZINE, PAGE NO: 42-47. OCTOBER 2010, VOLUME 5, ISSUE 10. [2]. http://www.docstoc.com/docs/12497880/medicated-chewing-gum "This blog does not contain any plagiarized material.