Needle Pain Matters

Written by Dr Amy Baxter MD, inventor of Buzzy. Published August 2021. Reviewed and updated September 2026 by Buzzy4Shots, the exclusive Buzzy and VibraCool distributor for Australia and New Zealand.

Needle sticks are the most common and most feared cause of medical pain in the world. This is the story of why one paediatrician stopped accepting that, what she built instead, and where Buzzy is today. If you have landed here after seeing Buzzy on Shark Tank, skip to the Shark Tank update below.

The inventor story behind Buzzy

As a paediatrician, I never thought injections were a big deal. I have seen parents and staff roll their eyes when a kid is freaking out about getting an injection. You know, "deal with it". I have taken care of children who died from vaccine-preventable diseases, and I used to think that any delay in vaccinations endangers all society.

Then I had my own kids, and witnessed first-hand that while vaccines do not hurt children, injections do. My son Max developed a phobia after a horrible injection experience at age 4. This fear affected him every time he had to go to the doctor. I gradually realised that if I did not act he could go through adulthood avoiding medical care.

It makes sense that being held tightly and subjected to a painful injection could have a lifelong impact on complying with health care. When I tried to use numbing creams, one nurse said "that stuff does not work, they need to get used to it", and gave the injection outside the numb zone. I got mad at the system and myself. If I could not protect my child and I am part of the system, what parent could?

I wanted to come up with something that worked instantly, that parents and patients with established needle phobia could bring and use even if the healthcare system was not interested.

From frozen peas to a bee with wings

I knew that the body could stop pain naturally using something called gate control theory. If you bang your knee and rub it, the pain stops. If you smash your finger and shake it, it helps the pain. If you burn your finger and hold it under cold running water, it quits hurting.

I thought of cuffs of cold water and all sorts of messy ideas. Driving home from the hospital one day it occurred to me that vibration would block pain, but it was not until my husband suggested frozen peas under the vibration that it really made my kids' hands numb to sharp pokes. And Buzzy was conceived.

Over the next five years my children helped test, build and prototype Buzzy until we had a device that worked. They smashed cell phones, helped me use electric tape and elastic bands, and served as my first and best advisors. We started with a hand-held massager and frozen peas, and finally got to a cute bee with frozen wings.

Buzzy uses the body's own nerves against sharp pain, and distracts attention away from the injection. If you want the physiology in plain language, we explain it on how does Buzzy work.

The research behind Buzzy

From a scientific standpoint, I did not want to put it out there unless I knew it worked for other people as well as it worked for my kids.

The Mayday Fund, a non-profit dedicated to the reduction of pain and suffering, sponsored Georgia State to run a research study in adult volunteers getting IVs inserted. Buzzy significantly decreased pain, and was more effective the more anxiety people already had. A trial in children needing IV starts in the emergency department also showed significantly decreased pain by child and parent report, and even increased IV success threefold.

On the basis of this, we received a $1 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to study whether Buzzy reduces the pain of immunisations, and hopefully helps avoid the development of needle phobia.

Buzzy is now supported by more than 100 published clinical trials and is FDA 510(k) cleared. The full list is on our Buzzy research and clinical trials page.

Why needle pain matters

Although needle pain from an injection may not seem like a big deal, needle sticks are the most common and most feared cause of medical pain in the world. Blood donation, preventative health care, and diagnosing serious illnesses like cancer are all affected by fear of doctors and needles. Awareness and use of available pain control methods for children can result in years of improved health.

Buzzy is now used for dentistry, travel immunisations, fertility shots, finger pricks, splinter removal and flu injections. We have heard from parents who had considered stopping more effective injected or IV treatments due to needle fear, who are now able to give their kids the best treatment because of Buzzy. We have even heard from kids, with stories and letters that remind us that needle pain matters, and because of that, so does Buzzy.

When that fear becomes a phobia it has a name. See what is trypanophobia for what it is and how common it is, or read how to overcome needle phobia for practical steps for adults and children. For distraction techniques during a procedure, see our distraction toolbox guide.

Dr Amy Baxter MD, inventor of Buzzy and founder of Pain Care Labs

Buzzy4Shots update, September 2026

Buzzy on Shark Tank: what happened next

Dr Baxter pitched Buzzy on Shark Tank in Season 5, Episode 18, which aired in February 2014. She asked for $500,000 in exchange for 5% of the company, valuing Buzzy at $10 million. At the time Buzzy was already in around 1,200 hospitals and clinics.

Two offers came in, both for $500,000 in exchange for 20%. Dr Baxter believed that was too much equity and turned them down. She left without a deal.

Buzzy kept going anyway. More than a decade later the device is still in production, still sold to families, hospitals and clinics around the world, and has now been used in over 37 million needle procedures. The research base has grown to more than 100 published clinical trials. Dr Baxter's company rebranded as Pain Care Labs and has continued to develop drug-free pain relief devices.

In Australia and New Zealand, Buzzy is supplied by Buzzy4Shots, the exclusive distributor for both countries. You can see the settings it is used in on our where is Buzzy being used page.

What Pain Care Labs built next: VibraCool

The same physiology that makes Buzzy work on a needle also works on muscle and joint pain, and that became VibraCool. Where Buzzy is designed for the short, sharp moment of a needle, VibraCool is a wearable wrap that combines high-frequency vibration with cold therapy over a longer session, usually around 20 minutes.

VibraCool uses M-Stim, a mechanical stimulation technology supported by more than 50 published clinical trials. It operates at 150 to 200 Hz. That frequency range matters, because it is high enough to reach the deep pressure and position-sense nerves that block pain signals, which is what separates it from lower-frequency massage devices.

In a crossover trial presented at AAPM&R in 2019, vibration therapy delivered between 240% and 340% more pain relief than TENS. Other published results include a 57% reduction in pain in an NIH HEAL study, and a 44% reduction in pain during heel stick procedures in newborns.

VibraCool is used for plantar fasciitis, tennis elbow, knee pain, neck and shoulder pain, arthritis, muscle soreness and postpartum recovery. If you have used a TENS machine and found it underwhelming, the comparison is set out on vibration therapy vs TENS machines, and the studies are listed on the VibraCool research page.

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