Hamadan University of Medical Sciences Avicenna Journal of Dental Research 2423-7582 10 2 2018 06 29 Contemporary Topical Therapeutics for Temporomandibular Joint Pain; A Review of the Literature 38 43 10.34172/ajdr.2018.09 EN Nazanin Mortazavi https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9479-0207 Milad Nodehghan Mahsa Valizadeh Roozbeh Mortazavi https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2548-7647 REVIEW 10.34172/ajdr.2018.09 2018 04 09 2018 05 22 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.