Chewing Gums as a Drug Delivery Approach for Oral Health

BACKGROUND: Drug delivery approaches with the shortest therapeutic period and the lowest side effects have always been considered a sublime target in the medical sciences. Among many delivery methods, chewing gum could be perceived as a promising drug carrier that can carry several types of drugs for oral health. These drug carriers could represent optimal therapeutic time and lower side effects due to their sustained release capability and lower required thresholds for the drug compared with other delivery approaches. The convenient use in the oral cavity's local environment and the ability to locally carry multiple drugs are considered the main advantages of this delivery approach. AIM: This review aimed to explore chewing gum as a promising drug carrier that can carry several types of drugs for oral health. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Articles were searched for on PubMed, ISI, SCOPUS, Google Patents, the Royal Society of Chemistry website, and electronic databases using MESH terms and the following keywords: (“Gum” OR “Chewing gum”) and (“Drug delivery OR Drug delivery systems”) in the English language. No time limit was applied, and all documents as of August 30th, 2020 were retrieved. RESULTS: Gum-drug interactions, mechanisms of release, and formulations of the drugs might all play a role in this versatile delivery method. Accordingly, chewing gum-based carriers may be presented as a plausible candidate for drug delivery in oral diseases. CONCLUSION: Gum-driven drugs could be introduced as promising candidates for treating oral diseases due to their ability to deliver the proper local dosages of active ingredients, short contact time, biocompatibility, and biodegradable chemical structures.