Approved by the Food and Drug Administration, a number of fillers containing lidocaine hit the market this spring and are quickly coming into fairly widespread use.
Whether one of our experienced members of our medical team is doing serial punctures or using a lattice technique, they will move from one area to an adjacent area, leaving enough time for the lidocaine to take effect. It actually takes several minutes for the lidocaine from the first injection to help anesthetize the area. The patient will definitely feel that first injection. Although, as with fillers in general, if it is injected slowly, it always hurts less.
There are different methods used to placing the injected material, so you can return to the area around the first injection site and have some anesthetic in the surrounding area. Even more important than reducing a patient’s pain from the individual injections is the benefit to the patient following the procedure. The greatest advantage comes after treatment, because, whereas in the past, people’s lips were really sore, they now have the benefit of a half-hour longer anesthetized vermillion area.
In terms of aesthetic results, the results from these new fillers are exactly the same as the ones without lidocaine. The pain relief is the only difference.
Unless a patient has a very high pain tolerance, a topical anesthetic is applied for 20 to 30 minutes before the first injection. This makes the patient more comfortable. This topical anesthesia, combined with a filler that comes with lidocaine, makes the visit throughout the procedure and beyond.
Allergan’s Juvéderm Ultra and Juvéderm Ultra Plus and Perlane all come with the lidocaine now. Ennis Plastic Surgery uses both products, as they have slightly different properties.