ABSTRACT

Buccal delivery is an interesting route of delivery owing to the easy administration of drugs. Buccal delivery releases the drug into the oral cavity and promotes absorption through the oral mucosa and transmucosa to achieve local and systemic actions. This route of delivery can be successfully used to attain site-specific release of drug on mucosa.  The suitable architecture of oral mucosa makes it suitable for delivery of drugs that extensively undergo hepatic first pass and presystemic metabolism. The limited surface area for absorption, mucosal barrier and other physiological activities, however,  limit the rate of absorption from the oral cavity.  The obstacles of oral route can be overcome using mucoadhesive dosage forms with innovative drug delivery systems. This review addresses the anatomical features of oral cavity, barriers in drug absorption from oral cavity, possible ways of oral drug delivery, mucoadhesion and the recent developments in mucoadhesive buccal delivery.