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Tablets and Its Types


Introduction
 Tablets are solid dosage forms usually prepared with the aid of suitable pharmaceutical excipients.
  They may vary in size, shape, weight, hardness, thickness, disintegration and dissolution characteristics and in other aspects, depending on their intended use and method of manufacture. Most tablets are used in the oral administration of drugs.
Definition:
“Tablets may be defined as solid unit dosage form of medicament or medicaments with or without suitable diluents and prepared either by molding or compression.”
Many of these are prepared with colorants and coating of various types.
Other tablets, such as those administered sublingually, buccally, or vaginally, are prepared to have the features most applicable to their particular route of administration.
Tablets are prepared primarily by compression, with a limited number prepared by molding.
Compressed tablets are manufactured with tablet machines capable of exerting great pressure in compacting the powder or granulated material. Their shapes and dimensions are determined by the use of various shaped punches and dies.
Molded tablets are prepared on a large scale by tablet machinery or on a small scale by manually forcing damped powder material into a mold from which the formed tablets is then ejected and allowed to dry.
Some tablets are scored, or grooved, which allows them to be easily broken into two or more parts.  This enables the patient to swallow smaller portions as may be desired, or when prescribed, it allows the tablet to be taken in reduced or divided dosage.
Some tablets that are not scored are not intended to be broken or cut by the patient since they may have special coatings and/or drug release features that would be compromised by altering the tablet’s physical integrity
Advantages:
         They are easy to carry.•
         They are easy to swallow.•
         They are attractive in appearance.•
         Unpleasant taste can be masked by sugarcoating.•
         They do not require any measurement of dose. The strip or blister packing has further facilitated the process by taking the dose by the patient. Moreover it provides a sealed covering which protects the tablets from atmosphere conditions like air, moisture and light.•
         Some of the tablets are divided into halves and quarters by drawing lines during manufacturing to facilitate breakage whenever a fractional dose is required.•
         An accurate amount of medicament even if very small amount can be incorporated.•
         Tablets provide prolonged stability to medicaments.•
         The incompatibilities of medicaments and their deterioration due to environmental factors are less in tablet forms.•
Since they are generally produced on a large scale therefore cost of production is relatively low, hence economical.
Disadvantages:
         Children and elder•ly patients cannot swallow the tablets.
         Packaging also involves quite a lot of expenditure.•
         Essential Qualities of a Good Tablet:•
         They should be accurate and uniform in weight.•
         The drugs should be uniformly distributed throughout tablets.•
         The size and shape should be reasonable for easy administration.•
         The tablets should not be too hard that it may not disintegrate in the stomach.•
         There should not be any incompatibilities.•
         They should be chemically and physically stable during storage.•
         They should not break during transportation or crumble in the hands of patients.•
         They should be attractive in appearance.•
         There should not any manufacturing defects like cracking, chipping or discoloration.•
         After administration it should disintegrate readily.•
         They should be easy and economical in production.•

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