Pain management is a critical component of perioperative care and significantly impacts recovery. To appropriately manage pain, accurate assessment of pain is required. However, the assessment of pain has intrinsic challenges given the subjective nature of the complaint. The pain experience has multidimensional elements from varying sensory perception, psychosocial factors, and influences from emotional states and cultural influences. Primary assessment of acute pain relies on self-report. Traditional self-report tools have primarily been unidimensional measuring one aspect such as intensity of pain and are usually very simple to use. Verbal categorical scales and Wong-Baker FACES scale are more commonly used unidimensional tools for the assessment of pain. In patients who are unable to communicate, the use of observational tools such as FLACC and critical care observation tool are of value. Objective monitors to assess and measure pain are in their infancy and further research is needed to both design and develop these before they are standard of care.