In this video I'm going to give you my honest physical therapist review of Asper cream spray
with lidocaine. My name is Dr. David Middaugh. I'm a specialist Physical Therapist here at El
Paso Manual Physical Therapy, and we specialize in helping people stay healthy, active and mobile,
while avoiding unnecessary surgery, injections, and pain medications. We make tons of helpful
videos with tips, advice, exercises and stretches for many different conditions,
you can go over to our playlist to check out one that might help you out. And please consider
subscribing to our channel so that you don't miss out on any of the helpful videos we post
every single week. So let's get into the review. We're going to talk about what lidocaine is,
first, that lidocaine is a medication. So this is an over the counter medication in a spray form.
And it's a topical spray, meaning you can put it on your skin.
Lidocaine itself is a synthetic chemical made in a lab. So it's not really a natural ingredient. Like
some of the other pain relieving creams out there that involve menthol or oils of different kinds.
This stuff's made in the lab through advanced chemistry techniques. And what's the research
behind lidocaine. It's actually a highly effective pain reliever and used in many different settings,
including dentistry, if you go to your general doctor, it's used to numb the skin typically,
or the inside of your mouth if you're going over the dentist. Now, you don't want to put
this on the inside of your mouth, the directions tell you so right there. What we do know in the
research is that it doesn't penetrate very deep, because it's used on the skin. And that's what we
found it to be most effective is that it only affects the skin, it numbs the nerve endings
in your skin only and it doesn't penetrate much deeper than that. There's good news and bad news
for that, that means that you should technically get some pain relief by numbing your skin.
But the bad news is if you have an injury that's deeper than just at the skin level,
then it's probably not going to have a massive effect. Different people report different things.
And I can tell you as a physical therapist, I have some patients that swear by this stuff when
they're having a flare up of some sort. They'll use Asper cream with lidocaine in lieu of using
like acetaminophen or ibuprofen, Tylenol or Advil that this is a medication, so you don't want to
overdo it with this. Now, some things to watch out for when using aspartame with lidocaine is
you don't want to spray this on an open wound, you want to make sure that the area that you're going
to put it on is not cut in any way or irritated already, the skin itself should not look red and
irritated. It's not to be used more than a week at a time because you can technically overdose on
this stuff. It does penetrate your skin more, the more you put on, the more it should theoretically
penetrate. And you can have some side effects from that. The most common side effect for
Asper cream with lidocaine is skin irritation. Now let's talk about how to use this stuff.
It's really simple. Now it's got this childproof top. So you got to pinch the sides right here,
where there, there's little bumps, and then you it's got directions on top and how to do it,
then you pinch it and turn it and pull it the same time and it snaps off. And you have this spray top
right there. So you just push the button, and it sprays out. Let me show you just like that.
And just to tell you about the odor, it's got a little bit of an odor, it's not super strong,
like some of the other pain creams that you might use out there. And it's supposed to be
quick drying. So we're going to spray it on right now don't have any pain, thankfully. So I can't
tell you that it's effective on me. But like I said earlier, it's quite effective, as shown by
many research studies, and our patients use it all the time. So just a little spray like that is all
you need. And it's I can see a little glistening on my arm. It's really not super wet. And it's
it is drying pretty quickly, right, there's just taking seconds to evaporate. And this stuff is
supposed to work pretty quick. Again, I don't have any pain, but maybe I'll get numb here by the time
this video is over. Now the directions say to spray the affected area every six to eight hours.
And don't exceed using this more than three times in a 24 hour period. There's no need to rub it
in as I haven't rubbed it in and I can already feel some different sensations in the air like
it's starting to go a little bit numb. And you know what it did? Yeah, I'd say the sensation is
definitely different right there where I sprayed it versus over here where I didn't spray it. And
there's no stickiness, there's no grainy feelings. If anything, it feels slightly moisturized,
nothing that feels odd. And I like this spray bottle because this is so strong and effective.
You would rather not rub this on your hands like a lotion and then rub it in because then
you're going to get it on your hands. You could be potentially putting more lidocaine into your body,
if you're having rub it in with your hands. So I love the spray bottle for that reason.
And to give you my honest opinion on whether or not you should use aspartame with lidocaine.
I think that I would go towards a mental based product first or an oil based product
for something that's more naturally derived, not a medication made in the chemistry lab. But the
other side of it is this is pretty effective. The other stuff might smell very strongly or
may not be as effective for you This is something though that I would keep in the medicine cabinet
right next to the acetaminophen or ibuprofen, the Tylenol or the Advil, or the name brands for those
medications. And this would be something to put on first, if you're dealing with like back pain, neck
pain, some sort of joint problem and understand that it's not going to penetrate to the joints,
and fix chronic arthritis or some cartilage problem or some ligament or meniscus tear,
or some disc issue. The whole point is just to buy you some short term pain relief,
so that you might get through some activity or get through a better night of rest, without taking
as strong as a medication as something might take in your mouth. This could also buy you time from
going to go visit the doctor for an injection or more severe stuff. But I would always encourage
you to go fix the root of the problem, which is what we talk about heavily on this channel.
Like I said at the beginning of the video, go check out our playlist and you can get advice,
tips, exercises stretches for treating the root of the problem. We also have programs
that you can purchase where we get go more in depth into treating root problems of chronic
issues like back pain and knee pain. But in the short term if you're looking for some relief,
Excellent choice, a little stronger than some of the other stuff out there. And just be careful
with not overdoing this. If you thought this video was helpful for you, please give us a thumbs up
and share it with somebody that you think needs to see this and please consider subscribing to
our channel. Thanks so much for watching. We'll see in the next video friends. Bye