After obtaining dental (Kings College London), medical (University of Cambridge) degrees and specialist training in oral medicine Dr Joanna M Zakrzewska went on to specialise in orofacial pain. Her MD on trigeminal neuralgia led to further clinical research in this field. She spent ten years as an academic at Queen Mary’s School of Medicine and Dentistry, London where she was awarded a personal chair in facial pain and is also a fellow of the Faculty of Pain Medicine. She developed and ran a pain program for dental undergraduates and has continued to teach postgraduates. In 2007 Joanna moved to Eastman Dental Hospital, University College London Hospitals where she set up the largest multidisciplinary UK centre for facial pain. This is a patient centred service that has developed care pathways for a range of facial pain conditions based on its research activities. She is currently supervising a post doctoral program on visualisation of pain through photography; an interdisciplinary project. She has written four books on orofacial pain, contributed to 19 chapters and written over 100 peer reviewed papers on the theme of orofacial pain. She lectures extensively, both nationally and internationally.