Local anesthesia is used most commonly for smaller, more superficial wounds or procedures that would not involve deeper nerves, internal organs or regional trunks of nerves that serve a wider area around the site procedure. This is usually accomplished by injection of a nerve sedative at and around the site. Perhaps the drugs that most people are familiar with are the family of “caines” –novocaine, lidocaine, xylocaine—that they may have experienced at their dentist’s office. Medical applications today can draw from a wider range of anesthetics.