"Just a little prick"

"It's not going to hurt."

Years of hearing those words and I still make a fist as if it would help take the pain away and cringe everytime a needle is about to invade my body.

And, as a parent, I have found myself uttering the same words whenever my son is scheduled to be immunized. Distracting him during the procedure works half the time. The other half, I have to help calm him down.

UCL Institute of Child Health has several tips on how we can help our kids deal with their fear of the needle.

And now, thanks to medical technology, we have an even better option to overcome the fear of the needle. Zars Pharma has announced that the topical anesthetic patch is now available on the market from Endo Pharmaceuticals.

"Synera is indicated for local dermal analgesia on intact skin, and consists of a thin, uniform, local anesthetic formulation with an integrated, oxygen-activated heating component that is intended to enhance the delivery of the local anesthetic. The drug formulation is an eutectic mixture of lidocaine 70 mg and tetracaine 70 mg. Synera is indicated to provide local dermal analgesia for superficial venous access and superficial dermatological procedures such as excision, electrodessication and shave biopsy of skin lesions."

With this new option, we can say goodbye to cries at the clinic.

[source: MedGadget]