Attempts to treat acute and chronic lesions of the oral mucous membranes with topical medications (including chronic marginal gingivitis, the keratoses, desquamative stomatitis, recurrent ulcerative stomatitis, pemphigus, erythema multiforme, drug eruptions, etc.) have been severely hampered by the difficulty in maintaining such medications at the site of application.
This report is concerned with the desirable properties of a new adhesive-vehicle-protectant preparation (to be referred to as Orabase) designed especially for maintaining topically applied drugs on the oral mucous membranes for longer periods of time than heretofore has been possible. Initial studies with this preparation indicate that this vehicle adheres to applied sites for periods varying from 15 minutes to 2 hours or longer,1 the varying durations being dependent upon the degree of mobility of oral tissues, the "washing action" of saliva, and the amount of vehicle applied.
The components of Orabase (gelatin, pectin, and carboxymethylcellulose in a liquid petrolatum-polyethylene