Note to the master of permanent makeup: types of local anesthesia

It is already difficult to imagine the procedure of permanent makeup without the use of painkillers. Micropigmentation specialists want the procedure to be comfortable for the client and, therefore, calm for themselves.

The most popular today is local anesthesia (Greek ἀναισθησία - without feeling) of local action. The use of local anesthetics can lead to a decrease (up to a complete loss) of the sensitivity of a certain limited area.

All local anesthetics, depending on the structural-active relationship, are divided into amide (lidocaine, trimecaine, mepivacaine, ultracaine, etc.) and etheric (procaine (novocaine), dicaine, anestezin).

Types of local anesthesia

Application anesthesia - sprays, gels, creams containing from 5% -10% lidocaine, tetracaine, procaine, etc. are used to anesthetize mucous membranes and small areas of the skin. Anesthesia occurs on the mucous membrane after 2-3 minutes, on the skin after 15-40 minutes.

Infiltration anesthesia - with this anesthesia, the anesthetic is injected under the mucous membrane or into the skin, therefore, anesthetizes a small area (usually 2% solutions are used)

Conduction anesthesia - allows you to anesthetize a large area with low doses of anesthetic (2% solutions). To do this, an anesthetic depot is created directly at the nerve (at the entrance to the bone or at the exit from it), the innervation zone of which must be anesthetized.

Infiltration and conduction anesthesia cope with the task of pain relief faster and more efficiently than application anesthesia, but due to the limitations of its use only by an anesthesiologist or doctor and only in the office, permanent makeup is used less frequently.

The development of various allergic reactions with this method of anesthetic administration is more likely, therefore, application anesthesia can be considered the most popular and safest. We will dwell on it in more detail.

There are many modern and high-quality local anesthetics on the market that can reduce pain, up to a complete loss of sensitivity. To date, Emla cream is the only certified and registered anesthetic. Many drugs with a similar composition are certified as cosmetic products (Sustaine, Prepcain, TattooSoothe, QuickNumb).

The compositions of application anesthetics differ in combinations of anesthetic components, their percentage, the consistency of the solution, the presence of additional components.

Anesthesia in permanent make-up

For permanent makeup procedures, it is convenient to use two types of anesthetic:

• for preliminary anesthesia (on intact skin);
• for damaged skin.

The pre-anesthetic agent contains 1-3 anesthetic components (for example, lidocaine-tetracaine-benzocaine, lidocaine-prilocaine, etc.) and may have additional components that promote better penetration and soften the skin (castor oil, petroleum jelly). Such a gel or cream is applied immediately before the tattoo procedure for 15-20 minutes (sometimes up to 40 minutes). The longer the application time, the longer the effect of the anesthetic. This type of anesthesia can significantly reduce pain. Sometimes this is quite enough for some PM procedures, especially if it does not last long (for example, eyebrow tattooing or correction).

Most often, after the primary skin injury, additional anesthesia with a different composition is used. In principle, the anesthetic used on damaged skin is no different from the means for preliminary anesthesia, but it is preferable that it contains an additional component - epinephrine (adrenaline). Epinephrine has anti-allergic properties, constricts blood vessels, which allows the anesthetic not to penetrate deep into damaged tissues, while enhancing its local effect. Due to vasoconstriction, an additional positive moment arises - bleeding is reduced. On damaged skin, the anesthetic begins to act much faster (after 2-5 minutes) and is able to anesthetize a certain area up to a complete loss of sensitivity. It is most convenient to work alternately on different parts of the pigmented area. In addition, the composition should be used on damaged skin as the pain recurs. As a rule, such a need arises after 10-15 minutes.