For starters, collagen injections are one of the most com­fortable procedures out there, thanks to the lidocaine, a local anesthetic, that’s already premixed in the syringe. To make the entire process completely painless, a patient can choose to numb the area that will be treated with a thick coating of a cream that also contains lidocaine. Some patients choose to undergo the procedure without this extra step, while others happily ask for it and use the additional thirty minutes of wait­ing time to catch up on their magazines. The cream is then removed, the procedure is performed, and the skin remains numb for approximately an hour afterward.