 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Squeeky
Date: 2004-08-19 22:40
Hi,
As I said before I have only been playing clarinet for just over a week. I'm finding that after about 20 minutes of practice my mouth gets very dry and I can't play any notes at all. Is this normal or just me?
Also I do 3 practice sessions a day but only of 20 minutes a time, should I be doing longer?
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Author: hans
Date: 2004-08-19 22:56
Peter,
This has been covered before and you may find something useful with a search of the BB.
Many medications can cause a dry mouth. If that is not what is causing your problem, the only thing that I can think of to suggest is keeping a bottle of water handy.
Regards,
Hans
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Author: William
Date: 2004-08-20 14:55
I used to have to keep that water bottle next to my music stand all the time because of dry mouth. Couldn't get through two pieces of music without "cotton mouth" setting in. Then, my doctor diagnosed the onset of type II diabetes and since I began medication and changed my diet--lots less ice cream--no more dry mouth for me. Hope this is not your problem, but......just in case you have the other symptoms as well, perhaps its time for a trip to your doc. Good luck.
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Author: Terry Stibal
Date: 2004-08-20 17:15
I too have Type II diabetes, and one of the medications that I take causes me to have (literally) a bone dry mouth. (It is so dry that I would wake up in the morning with my tongue "glued" to the roof of my mouth with the viscous goo that had replaced my saliva.) At its worst, my mouth would not seal a clarinet mouthpiece adequately, and would only barely seal a saxophone one. As for bassoon playing, forget it. Very distressing.
The first thing that I tried was the "drink more water" approach, but found it to be lacking. After a sip and a swish around the inside of the mouth, I found that I could play maybe twenty bars of bassoon music tops. And, that was with a soaked reed that was largely "self sealing" against the lips...clarinet playing remained almost impossible with the sip and swish approach.
After going through a total workup for Skogren's Syndrome (often a cause of dry mouth conditions), including three hours spent in some sort of scanning machine that used radio dye to show the function of the glandular bodies in my head, Skogren's was excluded (thank God). Next, the diabetes medication was isolated as being the cause. As taking that particular drug was critical for management of the condition, the rheumatologist (and I have no idea why I ended up referred to a rheumatologist; something to do with Skogren's, I would imagine) ultimately prescribed a drug called Evoxac (Ee-vo-zac), produced by a (presumably Japanese) pharmaceutical company called Dai Ichi.
In the form of small white gelatin capsules taken two or three times a day, these "spit pills" do the job in spades. I generally take one with breakfast and one at supper to have a relatively normal mouth (just a hair drier than I'd like before breakfast), but on gig days I vary the dose up to the "normal" three a day.
The spit flows like wine (to badly mix a metaphor), and as long as you maintain adequate "input" of water at the same time, it all works like it used to. Side effects are listed as queasy stomach and dizziness; I've only experienced the slightest of stomach "discomfort" and zero dizziness whilst consuming the stuff.
Evoxac, in addition to being a relatively rare drug (none of my other doctors even knew that it existed, and it is stocked by few pharmacies), is also very costly, figuring out to something like $2.74 for each dose if bought at the market rate. If you are not on a HMO (or obtaining your drugs through the Department of Veteran's Affairs; my diabetes and related conditions are service connected due to Agent Orange exposure), Evoxac can be very costly. But, it works and works well.
There is a over the counter medication to treat "dry mouth", but I have lost track of it since climbing on the Evoxac trolley. I have heard advertising over the radio for it on an "older person music format" radio station (hits from the 40's through the 60's), so it is out there somewhere. If I can find the name, I'll post it here.
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Author: Terry Stibal
Date: 2004-08-20 19:42
After some very quick research (the paper upon which my wife had scribbled the name was still in the dashboard of her car), I have found that the name of the "over the counter" saliva supplement is Biotine. I would imagine it would be available at a drug store (for Britons read "chemist") near you, but I've never tried to purchase any.
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