 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: David Peacham
Date: 2005-01-30 17:12
The dentist who has looked after me for the last ten years has emigrated, and his replacement has suggested doing some repair work on my upper front teeth. This involves "bonding" to strengthen the rather ragged biting edge, and also to deal with a spot of recession.
Should I be concerned about this from the clarinet point of view? The new dentist doesn't seem to be clarinet-aware.
I play single-lip, and use a thick rubber pad on the mouthpiece. I cannot comfortably play double-lip (no doubt I could learn). I can fairly comfortably play in a sort of half-way house embouchure where my upper teeth are raised clear of the mouthpiece, but not properly covered by my lip. However this doesn't do a whole lot of good to my intonation.
Any views from dentists on the board, or players who have had this treatment, would be most welcome.
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If there are so many people on this board unwilling or unable to have a civil and balanced discussion about important issues, then I shan't bother to post here any more.
To the great relief of many of you, no doubt.
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Author: David Peacham
Date: 2005-01-30 17:53
Neil, thanks for your rapid reply. I'd missed that thread. I hadn't realised this type of repair was even practised 25 years ago.
It was your upper teeth you had done? Do you play single-lip? Do you use any sort of mouthpiece pad? Did you stop playing for a while after the repair was done?
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If there are so many people on this board unwilling or unable to have a civil and balanced discussion about important issues, then I shan't bother to post here any more.
To the great relief of many of you, no doubt.
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Author: Don Berger
Date: 2005-01-30 18:18
Hi David, Your description is remarkably similar to my situation and my "toothy" experience, which happily has turned out well, with care being taken. Short story, I have had poorly shaped and located lower front teeth all of my [long] life. Having had several root-canals, one of these teeth broke off recently, NO, I dont chew nails of any variety. My fine dentist-friend, [but not a musician, dern it] pulled the rest of it, I played a couple rehs on bass cl [T G for a more relaxed embouchure than sop cl], no fun, tho, some lip chewing ! I proposed a tooth implant, having a successful wisdom/molar implant, but Ray suggested bonding, and did so, its working out well for me SO FAR. My "glued-in falsie" is about ?1 mm below the level of the "smoothed-off" adjacents to help me not use it for chewing, so with care all is well. It was not inexpensive dental work, but not as severe as implant orthodonture. Turned into a "long story, didn't it. MUCH LUCK, Don
Thanx, Mark, Don
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Author: Ed
Date: 2005-01-30 18:26
I have also had bonding done to repair a front tooth that was chipped many years ago. It works great and I have not noticed any negative affect on my clarinet playing. In fact, it probably makes the mouthpiece sit more comfortably in my mouth now that the teeth are even. It should work fine. Good luck.
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Author: Carol Dutcher
Date: 2005-01-30 19:04
I had bonding done to my front teeth about one month ago. It was very uncomfortable for the first week. But now it doesn't bother me at all and looks quite nice. The dentist told me to not eat anything like french bread that would pull the bonding off. At the same time he filed down my lower teeth, sharp places, to help with my sore lip from clarinet playing. He said he had not worked on any clarinet players before.
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Author: Gordon (NZ)
Date: 2005-01-30 19:16
My teeth were very worn down. The treatment I got lengthened them all again, by at least a mm. No problem for reed playing.
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Author: BobD
Date: 2005-01-30 21:30
I warned you about playing two clarinets at a time......lucky you didn't put your eye out.
Bob Draznik
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Author: David Peacham
Date: 2005-01-30 21:54
Now you come to mention it, Bob, I did have some (very minor) work done on my eye a year ago!
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If there are so many people on this board unwilling or unable to have a civil and balanced discussion about important issues, then I shan't bother to post here any more.
To the great relief of many of you, no doubt.
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Author: Neil
Date: 2005-01-31 01:16
David,
Yes it was my two front upper teeth. I play single lip but the repair work was done during my 30 year hiatus. I don't use a mouthpiece pad; you might want to if you use a hard rubber or wooden mouthpiece, I've noticed scratches on my crystal mouthpiece so this stuff must be pretty hard.
Neil
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Author: Ralph Katz
Date: 2005-01-31 15:39
I had this done to 6 teeth over 20 years ago. It is the least invasive process that I know of for surface tooth repair. Then it was not a standard technique, and my dentist (bless him) had to jump through hoops to get my insurer to pay. Now there should be no problem.
An advantage of bonding is that it leaves almost all of your original tooth intact (the surface is etched to give the bonding material soimething to stick to.)
A disadvantage is that bonding can increase the thickness of the tooth, if an entire surface of the tooth is covered, but this can also be true of veneering. The bonding material was not as hard as veneering or caps when I had this done, but I am not up to speed on the newest materials.
A decade ago, I chipped one of the bonded teeth. 10 minutes in the chair and I was back in business with no visible marks.
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Author: David Peacham
Date: 2005-03-07 15:03
An update in case anyone looks at this thread in future....
I had the work done four hours ago, minimal discomfort, no anaesthetic needed. Just had a quick tootle on the clarinet and there seems to be no effect at all on my playing (I had been hoping for a miraculous improvement).
Now I just have to remember never again to use my front teeth to bite into apples, crusty bread or stubborn plastic bags.
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If there are so many people on this board unwilling or unable to have a civil and balanced discussion about important issues, then I shan't bother to post here any more.
To the great relief of many of you, no doubt.
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