Nazanin Mortazavi
1,2 
, Milad Nodehghan
2, Mahsa Valizadeh
2, Roozbeh Mortazavi
3* 1 Assistant Professor, Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Medicine, Dental School, Golestan University of Medical Sciences, Gorgan, Iran
2 Dental Research Center, Golestan University of Medical Sciences, Gorgan, Iran.
3 Assistant Professor, Department of Rheumatology, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran.
*Corresponding Author: *Correspondence to Roozbeh Mortazavi, Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Medicine, Dental School, Golestan University of Medical Sciences, Gorgan, Iran, Email:
roozbehmortazavi@gmail.com
Abstract
Pain is the main reason for patients with temporomandibular joint disorders to attend dental clinics seeking for treatment. As for the most common musculoskeletal conditions, pharmacotherapy can be used in temporomandibular disorders (TMDs). However, there has been a shift in public and medical opinion away from systemic analgesics once medical and dental profession became concerned about the use of such medications with adverse events. Topical analgesics may potentially achieve similar effects to oral formulations without their systemic drawbacks. This review focuses on the contemporary topical agents used in the treatment of TMD. An advanced search of publications from 1980 to 2016 was made in ScienceDirect, PubMed, Medline, and Google Scholar databases.