{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,25]],"date-time":"2026-05-25T13:04:55Z","timestamp":1779714295654,"version":"3.53.1"},"reference-count":17,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"6","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,25]],"date-time":"2026-05-25T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1779667200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Medicina"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Background: Effective topical anesthesia is essential to patient comfort and adherence during minimally invasive esthetic procedures. We retrospectively reviewed pain scores recorded after microneedling in a single private clinic where two topical anesthetic formulations\u2014lidocaine 7%\/tetracaine 7% (Pliaglis) and lidocaine 2.5%\/prilocaine 2.5% (Anesderm)\u2014were used as part of standard clinical practice on different anatomical sites and under different application protocols. Methods: Records were reviewed from 26 healthy female patients (mean age 42 \u00b1 4 years; range 34\u201348) who underwent microneedling on the face and neck during 2024 in a single private clinic. According to the established clinic protocol, which was not modified for research purposes, Pliaglis was applied to the face without additional occlusion (self-occlusive peel-off film, in accordance with the manufacturer\u2019s recommendation) and Anesderm was applied to the neck under plastic-film occlusion (also in accordance with the manufacturer\u2019s recommendation), both for 45 min prior to microneedling at a fixed depth of 1.25 mm. Treatment allocation was determined by clinic workflow; patients and the operator were not blinded, and the order of the two products within each session was not randomized. Post-procedural pain was recorded using a Visual Analog Scale (VAS, 0\u201310), with one decimal precision, separately for each anatomical site. Within-patient differences were analyzed using a paired-sample t-test, with a Wilcoxon signed-rank test as a non-parametric sensitivity analysis. Results: Pain scores were lower at the facial site (Pliaglis, no occlusion) than at the cervical site (Anesderm, occlusion): mean VAS 3.00 \u00b1 0.63 vs. 5.38 \u00b1 0.75; mean within-patient difference 2.38 points, 95% CI 1.97\u20132.80; paired t(25) = 11.87, p &lt; 0.0001; Cohen\u2019s d = 2.33. The Wilcoxon signed-rank test produced a concordant result (p &lt; 0.0001). A within-patient pain reduction of at least 30% on the facial site relative to the cervical site was observed in 81% of patients (21\/26). Both products were well tolerated, with only mild transient erythema reported. Conclusions: In this retrospective, non-randomized, non-blinded single-center analysis, lower pain scores were observed at the facial site (treated with lidocaine-tetracaine 7%\/7% without additional occlusion, per manufacturer instructions) than at the cervical site (treated with lidocaine-prilocaine 2.5%\/2.5% under occlusion, per manufacturer instructions) within the same patients. Because formulation, active-drug concentration, anatomical site, and the manufacturer-mandated occlusion technique co-varied between the two conditions, the observed difference cannot be attributed to formulation alone. These findings should be regarded as hypothesis-generating and require confirmation in prospective, randomized, split-region or split-face studies that disentangle formulation effects from site- and protocol-related factors.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/medicina62061026","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,25]],"date-time":"2026-05-25T11:57:44Z","timestamp":1779710264000},"page":"1026","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Pain Scores Associated with Lidocaine-Tetracaine Versus Lidocaine-Prilocaine Topical Anesthesia During Facial and Cervical Microneedling: A Retrospective Single-Center Observational Analysis"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"62","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-5890-1376","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Lidia","family":"Majewska","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"ESME Clinic, Private Practice, Ul. Lwowska 1\/u16, 30-548 Krakow, Poland"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-4739-8576","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Karolina","family":"Dorosz","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Biological Sciences Division, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0003-6687-0172","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Iwona","family":"Paciepnik","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Family Medicine, Jagiellonian University Medical College, Ul. Boche\u0144ska 4, 31-061 Krakow, Poland"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Agnieszka","family":"Budzy\u0144ska","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Ma\u0142opolska Burn and Plastic Surgery Center, Os. Z\u0142otej Jesieni 1, 31-826 Krakow, Poland"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,25]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"152","DOI":"10.1055\/s-0034-1371897","article-title":"The pain truth: Recognizing the influence of pain on cosmetic outcomes","volume":"30","author":"Dayan","year":"2014","journal-title":"Facial Plast. Surg."},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"NP218","DOI":"10.1093\/asj\/sjab358","article-title":"Facial aesthetic priorities and concerns: A physician and patient perception global survey","volume":"42","author":"Fabi","year":"2022","journal-title":"Aesthet. Surg. J."},{"key":"ref_3","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"709","DOI":"10.1111\/j.1524-4725.2011.02271.x","article-title":"Topical anesthetics for dermatologic procedures: A review","volume":"38","author":"Sobanko","year":"2012","journal-title":"Dermatol. 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Surg."}],"container-title":["Medicina"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/1648-9144\/62\/6\/1026\/pdf","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,25]],"date-time":"2026-05-25T12:37:52Z","timestamp":1779712672000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/1648-9144\/62\/6\/1026"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,25]]},"references-count":17,"journal-issue":{"issue":"6","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,6]]}},"alternative-id":["medicina62061026"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/medicina62061026","relation":{},"ISSN":["1648-9144"],"issn-type":[{"value":"1648-9144","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,25]]}}}