No, Bupivacaine is neither an opioid nor a narcotic. Bupivacaine is a medication that belongs to a class of medicines known as local anesthetics. It helps prevent pain which occurs during and after a surgery. The effect of the medicine lasts for over a long period of time, thus aiding in recovery too. Bupivacaine works on your body only in the treated area, unlike opioids that work on the whole body.

Bupivacaine works by numbing that area on your body where a surgery has been performed. Bupivacaine slowly releases a local anesthetic medication into that area, thus providing effective long-lasting pain relief.

Yes, your doctor may prescribe some other pain relieving medicines alongwith Bupivacaine for effective pain management. Due to this, you will need lower doses of the different medicines you are taking. Additionally, this will also reduce the chances of developing side effects of a particular medicine because of the lower doses.

Ropivacaine is a left isomer of Bupivacaine. Yes, Ropivacaine is comparatively safer than Bupivacaine. There are less toxic effects of ropivacaine on the heart and central nervous system as compared to Bupivacaine. Hence, it is considered as a safer option.

Our nervous system is more sensitive to the effects of local anesthetics than any other system of the human body. In case of local anesthesia toxicity one may experience tinnitus (ringing sound in the ears), blurred vision, dizziness, tongue paresthesia (tingling or pricking sensation) and circumoral numbness (numbness around the eyes). Consult your doctor if the symptoms bothers you.