Pain is one of the most common clinical symptoms，which is closely related to the occurrence and progression of the disease，and affects the quality of life of patients to a great extent. Opioids are currently the mainstay of pain treatment，yet new treatments are stillurgently required due to their lethal side effects and addic⁃tive nature. The introduction of nanotechnology has great potential to address this dilemma by enabling targeted treatments with few or no associated side effects. In this review，we will review the current status of clinical pain treatment，new targets for pain treatment，and the progress of applicationof nanotechnology in pain treatment man⁃agement，with emphasis on nanoparticle based drug delivery methods and the modulation of pain signals through the removal of metabolic factors by nanomaterials.

nanotechnology, painmanagement, drug delivery, scavengers