Buccal Mucosa: A Novelistic Route of Drug Delivery

The buccal mucosa has been investigated for local drug therapy & systemic drug delivery of therapeutic drugs that are subjected to first pass metabolism or are unsuitable with in the G.I.T. Among the various trance mucosal routes the buccal mucosa is very suitable for bioadhesion system because of excellent accessibility, an expanse of smooth muscles & relative immobile mucosa, hence suitable for drugs with a short half life, requiring a sustained released effect, sensitive to enzymatic degradation or poor solubility may be good candidates to deliver via the oral cavity.The buccal mucosa provides the direct entry in to systemic circulation. These data support by the fact that the thickness between epithelium and submucosa of buccal cavity is 594µm. The release of the drug can be affected by continuous secretion of saliva.On the other hand, the buccal route is characterized by some intrinsic limitations (barrier properties of the mucosa, small area available for drug absorption, short residence time of the formulation caused by physiologic-removal mechanisms), which have to be considered in the design of buccal drug delivery systems. To overcome this drawback several mucoadhesive dosage forms are used. This article deals with various prospects of buccal drug delivery by discussing anatomy & physiology of buccal route, path of drug absorption, permeability & various formulations for buccal drug delivery along with current advancement including protein and peptide drug delivery through this so effective drug delivery route.