Klarinet Archive - Posting 000195.txt from 2006/09

From: Arthur Acheson <arthur.acheson@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] milk teeth
Date: Fri, 15 Sep 2006 03:57:44 -0400

"Dentists on the other hand say that no wind instrument should be
blown before 13 because it will mis-shape the mouth."
from "The Clarinet Teacher's Companion" by Pamela Weston.
I have been teaching since 1963 and have taught many 8 and 9 year
olds. None of my students has had this problem but I have known
teenage students of other teachers who were warned by their dentists
that their incisors were becoming loose due to biting. When you see
the gouges left by teeth on some clarinet and saxophone mouthpieces
this is not difficult to understand.
In favour of starting young is that there is often a level of
enthusiasm and commitment at this age which may never be equalled.
I have never been able to find any confirmation for the quotation
from Pamala Weston's book quoted above.
Arthur Acheson

On 14 Sep 2006, at 21:40, Karl Krelove wrote:

I'm not a dental professional, but my answer as an elementary school
music
teacher for over 30 years is that it's an unusual child who will
practice
enough at 9 years old to damage much of anything. Many, many children
begin
clarinet study in schools all over the U.S. at 9 or 10 years old and
there
doesn't seem to be a widespread cry of damage from it. Who knows
where the
mother read this (from your post, I gather that she doesn't remember
either), but people write lots of nonsense and are able to publish
it. From
my experience I'd say the likelihood of any dental damage is remote.

Karl Krelove

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Dominic Codera [mailto:d_codera@-----.com]
> Sent: Thursday, September 14, 2006 10:54 AM
> To: klarinet@-----.org
> Subject: [kl] milk teeth
>
> Hi
>
> I have a child who would like to start the clarinet this
> term. He is 9yrs old but his mother queried whether this
> would be possible as he still has full set of milk teeth (she
> read somewhere that clarinet might harm the milk teeth or
> something). Has anyone come across this issue from a parent?
> Does clarinet playing really affect children's milk teeth?
>
> Many thanks.
> Dominic
>

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