The advantages and disadvantages of the Tablet dosage

The advantages of the tablet dosage form are:

1. They are unit dosage form and offer the greatest capabilities of all oral dosage form for the greatest dose precision and the least content variability.

2. Cost is lowest of all oral dosage form.

3. Lighter and compact.

4. Easiest and cheapest to package and strip.

5. Easy to swallowing with least tendency for hang‐up.

6. Sustained release product is possible by enteric coating.

7. Objectionable odour and bitter taste can be masked by coating technique.

8. Suitable for large scale production.

9. Greatest chemical and microbial stability over all oral dosage form.

10. Product identification is easy and rapid requiring no additional steps when employing an embossed and/or monogrammed punch face.

Disadvantages of tablet dosage form are:

1. Difficult to swallow in case of children and unconscious patients.

2. Some drugs resist compression into dense compacts, owing to amorphous nature, low density character.

3. Drugs with poor wetting, slow dissolution properties, optimum absorption high in GIT may be difficult to formulate or manufacture as a tablet that will still provide adequate or full drug bioavailability.

4. Bitter testing drugs, drugs with an objectionable odor or drugs that are sensitive to   oxygen may require encapsulation or coating. In such cases, capsule may offer the best and lowest cost.