Klarinet Archive - Posting 000015.txt from 2011/10
From: Rachel Roessel <gsurosey@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] dental question
Date: Mon, 10 Oct 2011 01:48:01 -0400
> Any comments, information, considerations, experiences, on the
> effects of dental work on ones clarinet playing would be of great
> interest just now.
This is very long, so bear with me. I may have written about this here before, so if I did, this is an update with some back details.
I had my final wisdom tooth extraction this past January (I just turned 31 in September, so I'm a little older than the typical having them all yanked in teens or 20s). Since I had the 2 on my right removed last year fairly easily (except for an infection I got in the lower socket, resulting in a procedure to open the socket again to get the infection out), I figured this would be easy, too.
Wrong. After my dentist tried and tried for a solid hour, the tooth wouldn't budge, so she called in a surgeon for help. He couldn't get the tooth to move, either, so he had to get surgical and start cutting (which is also the point in which the lidocaine was wearing off and I needed more shots in my mouth so as to not jump out of the chair and kill whoever inflicted pain). So, more shots and more cutting and pulling, and finally the stubborn tooth popped out. The 3 roots that were on the tooth were twisted around each other and kinda cool looking. I found out later that 1) the tooth was at an odd angle making things difficult, and 2) the nerves went deep into the mandibular nerve canal. The procedure (which took about an hour and a half), was done at around 5:30pm, so after I was done, I went to the pharmacy to pick up the prescribed pain meds and Ibuprofen. I went home, popped pills, and went to bed.
When I got up the next morning, I noticed that I still had a lot of numbness which I found strange. When I went back to my dentist a week later to get the stitches out, I was still numb and let her know that. I think my next follow-up was a week later (to make sure things were healing ok) and I was still numb then, too. The numb area was about the circumference of a golf ball. Height-wise, the area is from the bottom of my chin up to and including my bottom lip. Width-wise, the area starts in the middle of my bottom lip and extends leftward until around the corner of my mouth (left lower is the wisdom tooth that was taken out). So, half of my lower lip and half of my chin. The extraction was done during the first week of January; I didn't start getting feeling back in the area until April. Numbness was replaced with pain, tingling, and this burning-itching sensation (which was quite annoying since I would scratch the itch, but there was no relief because
I couldn't feel that I was scratching). Until I got feeling back, I was biting my lip all the time and not feeling it (and not knowing it until I noticed I was bleeding). Since I don't bite my lip all the time normally, I'm sure I had some function loss while I was all numb.
In (or around) June, I started having different pain in my mouth. Turned out to be an infection in the root of the tooth in front of where the wisdom was pulled. I had to decide between having that one pulled or a root canal. Since Medicaid tends to frown upon paying for root canals (from what I've heard) and sometimes root canals don't work and the tooth needs to be pulled anyway, I had the tooth pulled in the emergency clinic (I couldn't get an appointment for a month and there was no way I was going to be in pain for a month). Most of the tooth came out in 10 minutes. A root was broken off in the socket, so that extraction got surgical and they had to cut to get the broken root tip out. The surgeon that did this one said that the root could've broken off when my wisdom tooth was pulled in January (which makes sense to me since it got infected in there with no other damage to that molar), or could've been broken off that day (and she said there was no
way to know either way). That day was probably the first time they ever gave a patient Coke (I got dizzy and almost passed out when I went to leave, so they got a Coke to get some sugar in me since I can't have orange juice or anything citrus without getting sick). I was relieved that I got the feeling back that day that I went into surgery with.
Fast-forward to now. I still have tingling in that area, especially if I run my tongue or finger through the area. A different surgeon (same practice) that was consulted a couple times said that this could last a year. She said that since I got feeling back in 3 months, this is likely not permanent. She was encouraged that my tongue was never affected by any of this. I started taking a B-Complex vitamin in May; the surgeon said that this sometimes helps, though they don't know why.
I didn't change anything embouchure-wise when playing with no feeling. I experimented a little bit (playing out of the right side of your mouth feels pretty weird), but with the help of my teacher, we figured that I didn't sound any different trying to do it that way then doing it how I usually did. It is very strange playing when you can't feel your lower lip. Until I got used to it, I had a fair amount of leaking air. I have to be more mindful about not biting because if I bite too hard, it hurts. It's not as bad with my clarinet in my mouth. Vibration on my lower lip still hurts. I'm not sure how to avoid that when I'm playing (just have to take breaks).
I hope that this story isn't over. I'm still hopeful that the nerve issues resolve themselves and I don't have permanent damage. Just have to hurry up and wait.
So, there's my take on dental stuff. There's good and bad in there. Do what you can as soon as you can. A friend of a friend almost died of an oral infection (went to his heart). I believe he was in the hospital for 6 months. So that actually happens.
Good luck with it.
Rachel
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