Author: Kalashnikirby
Date: 2017-07-20 21:27
kdk wrote:
> In that case, I'm not sure how much cleaner the mouthpiece will
> be than if you run a swab through it once or twice. Running
> water won't disinfect - you don't want food workers or medical
> personnel just rinsing their hands in clear running water
> before preparing your food or examining you.
>
> To repeat, it won't harm anything. I just wonder if the
> inconvenience is worth the benefit.
>
> Karl
I don't know, when working on my patients (I study dentistry) we wear gloves and in accordance to a certain grading, they don't have have to be sterile as we usually don't go further than the mucosa ("semi-critica"l), but our tools have to be disinfected, at least (of course, most are sterile). When working with (intact) skin only, a cleaning is sufficient and disinfection would be optional. I'd not actually require food workes to always disinfect their hands, it's neither necessary nor safer for me, there's a whole lot of different factors entering into this equation. Washing one's hands can often enough be completely sufficient. Same goes for an examination, in fact doctors controlling our work won't always put on gloves when picking up the mouth mirror etc. during an examination.
From a hygienic point of view, no bacterial biofilm can form once your reed and mouthpiece are dried, at least formation is greatly hindered. Other than that, clarinetists will have to accept the fact that they're literally using a tube to spray an (potentially) infectious aerosal around. My point is, we cannot enforce such strict rules and that is not necesarry either. I clean my mouthpiece for other reasons.
As far as enzymes in our saliva are concerned... I've never seen any evidence showing they could "digest" one's reed before it's used up because of other reasons. If saliva could do that, I'd be greatly concerned about my instrument. Acidity, on the other hand, might perhaps be harmful, but I cannot say at which pH or to what extent...
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