The key difference between lidocaine and benzocaine is that lidocaine is used commonly as a regional anaesthetic, whereas benzocaine is often used as a topical anaesthetic.
Local anaesthetics are drugs that reduce pain and sensation in an infected area or an injured area. Moreover, these drugs do not affect other areas of the body. Lidocaine and benzocaine are two of the most common local anaesthetics.
CONTENTS
1. Overview and Key Difference
2. What is Lidocaine
3. What is Benzocaine
4. Side by Side Comparison – Lidocaine vs Benzocaine in Tabular Form
5. Summary
What is Lidocaine?
Lidocaine is a type of local anaesthetic that helps to numb the tissues of a specific area in our body. We often use it as a regional anaesthetic. Furthermore, the most common trade name for this compound is Xylocaine. The metabolism of this compound occurs in the liver. Its elimination half-life is about two hours while the duration of action is around 10 to 20 minutes.
Figure 01: Structure of Lidocaine
Moreover, the chemical formula of Lidocaine is C14H22N2O. The molar mass of the compound is 234.34 g/mol. The melting point of lidocaine is 68 °C. When we use lidocaine as a local anaesthetic, the adverse effects are very rare.
What is Benzocaine?
Benzocaine is a type of local anaesthetic we use as a topical pain reliever. The trade name we use for benzocaine is Orajel. It is an ester local anaesthetic. Moreover, it is a major ingredient in many over-the-counter anaesthetic ointments such as medication we use for oral ulcers.
Figure 02: Structure of Benzocaine
The chemical formula of Benzocaine is C9H11NO2. The molar mass of this compound is 165.19 g/mol. Usually, there are no severe effects of this medication, but if we use products containing a high amount of benzocaine as a topical application on the skin, it can cause severe effects.
What is the Difference Between Lidocaine and Benzocaine?
Lidocaine and benzocaine are important local anaesthetics. The key difference between lidocaine and benzocaine is that lidocaine is used commonly as a regional anaesthetic, whereas benzocaine is often used as a topical anaesthetic. The chemical formula for lidocaine is C14H22N2O while the chemical formula for benzocaine is C9H11NO2.
When considering the adverse effects, adverse effects are very rare in lidocaine while in benzocaine, there can be severe effects if we use products containing high concentrations of benzocaine on skin. So, this is also a noteworthy difference between lidocaine and benzocaine.
Below is a tabulation of the difference between lidocaine and benzocaine.
Summary – Lidocaine vs Benzocaine
Overall, lidocaine and benzocaine are important local anaesthetics. The key difference between lidocaine and benzocaine is that lidocaine is used commonly as a regional anaesthetic, whereas benzocaine is often used as a topical anaesthetic.
Image Courtesy:
1. “Lidocaine” By Harbin – Own work (Public Domain) via Commons Wikimedia
2. “Benzokaina” By Karol Głąbpl.wiki: Karol007commons: Karol007e-mail: kamikaze007 (at) tlen.pl – own work – This W3C-unspecified vector image was created with Inkscape (CC BY-SA 3.0) via Commons Wikimedia