OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this investigation was to compare the effectiveness of dorsal penile nerve block and topical lidocaine-prilocaine anesthesia techniques for pain relief during circumcision. METHODS: In total, 18 healthy term newborn males were divided based on anesthesia. The topical lidocaine-prilocaine group had six males undergoing circumcision and three males undergoing a sham procedure. The dorsal penile nerve block group had six males undergoing circumcision and three males undergoing a sham procedure. The procedures were videotaped and viewed by 90 noninvestigator reviewers who scored the infants' pain using the Neonatal Infant Pain Scale and a numeric pain scale. Statistical analysis utilized a P-value of <0.05 as significant. RESULTS: The median Neonatal Infant Pain Scale and numeric pain scores were significantly lower in the dorsal penile nerve block group than in the topical lidocaine-prilocaine group or the sham group (Neonatal Infant Pain Scale: 1.0 (range 0-6) versus 6.0 (range 2-6) versus 4.0 (range 0-6), P < 0.001, respectively; numeric pain scale: 2.0 (range 0-10) versus 8.0 (range 1-10) versus 4.0 (range 0-10), P < 0.001, respectively). In the sham group, procedures with the dorsal penile nerve block had significantly lower pain scores than those with topical lidocaine-prilocaine (Neonatal Infant Pain Scale: 1.0 (range 0-6) versus 5.0 (range 2- 6), P < 0.001; numeric pain scale: 1.0 (0-8) versus 6.0 (range 0-10), P < 0.001). When reviewers were divided by medical background, gender or parental status, no differences in pain scores were observed. CONCLUSION: The dorsal penile nerve block anesthesia technique for newborn male circumcision was significantly more effective for pain relief than topical lidocaine-prilocaine.