Longtime BBC radio 2 broadcaster Zoe Ball revealed on Instagram recently that she suffers from a painful jaw condition which causes her to “wake most days with awful headaches from tension and jaw clenching”.
The condition Ball suffers from affects her temporomandibular joint (TMJ). Although Ball refers to the condition as “TMJ” in her post, the medical name for this condition is actually temporomandibular joint disorder (TMD). It commonly causes headaches, pain and clicking in the jaw.
TMD is relatively common, affecting up to 12% of the population – although there’s variation across continents, with South America showing the highest prevalence at 47%.
