Compounding and Comparative Study of a Superior, Faster, and More Adaptable Lidocaine Dental Gel Formulation

Compounding perfection confirms a safe, swift, and efficacious delivery of personalized compounded medication. A large variability of the potency of the finished product may stem from complicated formulation or difficult-to-adopt methods. Also, the formulation and compounding method may adversely affect the amount of time needed to finish the compounding and dispense the medication for the patient. This study involves the development of a novel formulation and compounding method of lidocaine hydrochloride 2% dental gel and compares it with an older, more common formulation which contains five times more alcohol and four times more gelling material. Student-pharmacists were recruited in this study, and the finished products were compared in terms of their intra-group potency uniformity, time needed to finish the compounding, and post-compounding psychometric feedback by the compounders. Each compounder participated in both of the formulation methods in a crossover fashion. Our result indicates that the new formulation and the associated method enables the compounders to produce products with less variation, requiring statistically significantly less compounding time and better acceptability by the compounder.