What are some good topical anesthetics?

Examples of good topical anaesthetics include lidocaine, benzocaine and prilocaine, explains Drugs.com. These medicines work by inducing numbness when individuals apply them to the skin. Sold under a number of different brand names, these anesthetics treat minor burns and cuts, insect bite sites, and sunburns.

Nils Lofgren and Bengt Lundqvist developed lidocaine, also known as Xylocain, according to the U.S. National Library of Medicine. As verified in testing, lidocaine worked significantly better than procaine, the previously dominant type of local anesthetic. Although lidocaine has an outstanding safety record, all local anesthetics prove to be neurotoxic when used in very high doses.