Klarinet Archive - Posting 000562.txt from 1997/12

From: "Dan Leeson: LEESON@-----.edu>
Subj: Teeth and clarinet playing
Date: Thu, 11 Dec 1997 19:42:35 -0500

John Gates in his interesting posting on De Payer commented that after
he had work done on his teeth, De Payer allegedly had difficulties
in tone deterioration and squeaking.

Interesting!

I had a pile of work done on my teeth about 20 years ago. It was
periodonture (spelling?) in which the gums are elevated and a great
deal more surface area of the teeth are exposed permanently.

The disease goes by a number of names including pyorahia (spelling
of this word has to be impossible without 6 consultants, but it is
pronounced pie-or-ee-ah), gum disease, and others whose spelling
and pronunciation I will not even attempt.

I also noticed that after the surgery, my tone quality changed, I
thought for the better but one is rarely a good judge of that.

Gates posting about De Payer is the first such other case of
dental surgery making some kind of affect on a player that I have
ever seen. Now it is obvious that if a clarinet player had all
his teeth pulled out and a plate put in, s/he could probably not
play at all (but I don't know that).

But what about dental surgery of various types including gum disease,
crowns, caps, endodonture, etc. That would be a terrific piece
of research for some dentist/clarinetist.

Or maybe the work has been done but not widely reported.

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Dan Leeson, Los Altos, California
Rosanne Leeson, Los Altos, California
leeson@-----.edu
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