Topical skin numbing cream is used to reduce or eliminate uncomfortable skin sensations. Topical skin numbing cream mitigates the sensations of pain, burn and itch where applied locally. Most topical skin numbing cream products contain one or more of the anesthetics, lidocaine, benzocaine, tetracaine and prilocaine.
The best, most effective topical skin numbing cream products include penetration enhancers, or drivers, that are known to make the skin temporarily more permeable. This means that the active pharmaceutical ingredient (API), lidocaine, tetracaine, benzocaine or prilocaine (or any combination in the topical skin numbing cream) can effective enter the skin where it can access the nerves that signal pain.
Once it enters the nerve, topical anesthetics work by blocking neuronal (related to nerves) impulses that send signals of pain, burn and itch to the brain. These medications do their job by entering a system called the high voltage sodium ion channel gate that produce and send pain sensations to the brain.
The more effective the delivery system included in the formulation of the topical skin numbing cream, the more effective the product is in numbing the discomfort or pain sensations.
Commonly known safe and effective drivers are:
- MSM
- Ethoxydiglycol
- Propylene glycol
- Isopropryl myristate
- Urea
Any one or combination of two or more of these drivers will assist the skin penetration of the API into the skin effectively. Preheating or occluding the surface area will also enhance the penetration effects of the topical skin numbing cream as well. These two methods of improving penetration should not be performed unless on the advice of your doctor. Laser and ultrasound also increase the rate of penetration. These two methods are performed in your doctors office under strict medical conditions.
There are a few topical skin numbing cream products on the market that are supplied in single-use, sanitary packets. The reason why the formulators supply these products in packets, is to improve dosing precision as well as reduce the risk that contaminants get into the container (such as jars or multi-use tubes) which can be passed on to the patient using the products.
NeuroMed 7 and the products in the NeuroMed BLT Convenience package are all supplied in single-use, sanitary packets. The proprietary formulation in each includes: MSM, ethoxydiglycol and propylene glycol designed to improve efficacy and reduce time to onset of action.