COMPARISON OF SALIVARY FLUORIDE CONCENTRATIONS AFTER ADMINISTRATION OF A BIOADHESIVE SLOW-RELEASE TABLET AND A CONVENTIONAL FLUORIDE TABLET

The in-vitro and in-vivo fluoride release of bioadhesive, slow-release tablets prepared from a mixture of polyethylene glycol polymers, containing 0.1 mg of fluoride as NaF was studied, and their ability to sustain fluoride levels in saliva were compared with conventional fluoride tablets with the same fluoride content. In-vitro release experiments showed that the bioadhesive tablets needed 8 h to release all their fluoride compared with < 1 h for the conventional fluoride tablets. In-vivo, the bioadhesive tablets had a retention period of 6 h and could sustain a salivary fluoride level of more than 10-mu-m above the baseline for 7 h. The conventional fluoride tablets achieved a peak concentration of 0.5 mM directly after dissolution in the mouth, but the fluoride level could not be sustained for longer than 1 h. A good agreement was found between the in-vitro swelling behaviour of the bioadhesive tablets and their in-vitro and in-vivo release characteristics and their in-vivo retention time.