Numbing Products Can Cause Serious Health Risks
Posted on Wednesday, January 21st, 2009 and is filed under Beauty. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a public health advisory about topical anesthetics–numbing creams, ointments or gels–which can cause serious side effects if not used properly.
Numbing creams are available by prescription and over the counter. They contain anesthetic drugs like lidocaine, tetracaine, benzocaine and priloscaine, which can be absorbed into the blood stream, and if used improperly, can cause seizures, irregular heartbeat, breathing difficulties, coma or death.
The FDA states that they received reports of adverse events and two deaths of women who used numbing products during laser removal.
The FDA advises consumers and health-care professionals to give the lowest possible dosage of topical anesthetics, and to evaluate whether pain relief can be achieved with such products at all or with a different kind of pain reliever.
Consumers should NOT:
* Make heavy application of topical anesthetic products over large areas of skin.
* Use formulations that are stronger or more concentrated than necessary.
* Wrap the treated skin with plastic wrap or other dressings.
* Apply heat from a heating pad.
