Benzocaine

Benzocaine is a surface anesthetic for the mouth lining. In Spain it is sold over the counter as a spray and a gel, and the AEMPS ficha técnica sets out the use precisely: local relief of dental and oral mucosal pain in adults and children from 6 years, no more than 3 to 4 times a day. Only the surface goes numb, so benzocaine helps before an anesthetic injection, with a denture sore or an aphthous ulcer, while pain from pulpitis or an abscess is merely dulled and its cause stays. While the numbness lasts, eating, drinking and chewing gum are unsafe: biting the tongue or choking comes easily. The ficha also warns about contact dermatitis, taste disturbance and methemoglobinemia in overdose. Benzocaine does not treat the tooth: when pain returns for a third day, a dentist is needed rather than another dose of spray.

Benzocaine lozenges – Angileptol, Deratin Complex, Garydol – sit by the till in a Spanish pharmacy, and people reach for them at the first sore throat. The benzocaine in them gives brief numbness of the pharyngeal lining while the lozenge dissolves. That is pain relief, not treatment: viral pharyngitis clears in 5 to 7 days on its own, and no ingredient of the lozenge shortens that. In combinations benzocaine comes with chlorhexidine and enoxolone, and the ficha técnica describes each contribution: antiseptic, anti-inflammatory, anesthetic. The dose must not be exceeded – the ficha states plainly that children, older people and debilitated patients are more sensitive to systemic benzocaine toxicity. If the sore throat lasts beyond three days or fever appears, the situation is reassessed: streptococcus may be behind it, and lozenges do not touch it.

ICD-10: R07.0