Formulation, Optimization And Characterization Of Etoricoxib Loaded Polymeric Dental Film

Abstract

Toothache is a severe pain which one can feel in and around teeth. The cavity and abscess are most common reason for toothache. Currently, oral dosage form of different drugs is available for the same. Taken orally, these reaches to systemic circulation and then to affected tooth area. It is a non- steroidal anti- inflammatory drug like selective inhibitor of COX 2 enzyme are normally used to reduce the swelling (inflammation) and pain The goal of the current work is to develop, characterize, and optimize a drug loaded dental film for quick as well as prolonged action. Etoricoxib, the selected drug, is a popular synthetic nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) with analgesic and anti-inflammatory effects. It binds to and inhibits the cyclooxygenase enzyme and results in reduces the generation of prostaglandins (PGs) from arachidonic acid. The dental films were prepared by solvent evaporation method. The hydroxypropyl methylcellulose (HPMC-E15) and methacrylic acid (Eudragit RL 100) were selected as main polymers for preparation of films. The prepared film was evaluated for various appropriate parameters such as folding endurance, weight uniformity, drug content, thickness, moisture absorption, surface pH and moisture loss. The optimization of films was done using Central Composite Design with 2 factors at three level (23 ). Through this the formulation (F9) was found to be best fit formulation over the all-other formulation. The optimized formulation was found to possess, thickness (0.020 ± 0.0002 mm), weight uniformity (127.6 ± 0.57 mg), moisture absorption (74.42 %), moisture loss (5.88 %), folding endurance (<145 fold), drug content (97.301±0.004%), in-vitro drug release studies (95.42±0.013% in 8 hours) and ex-vivo permeation study (50.35±0.027 % in 6 hours), showing its suitability w.r.t. set aim. Thus, it may be concluded that the optimized formulations have the potential to solve the disadvantages of commercially available products, such as gel and tablet bioavailability.