 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Gail
Date: 2001-10-16 17:44
My daughter has developed a visible sore spot below her lower lip since beginning to play the clarinet this summer. She took a two-week break in late August during which the sore almost healed up. Now since she's been playing again, it's back. We've treated it with Bacitracin and with Cortaid, not being sure what it was. Is it possible to have an allergy to the reed? Can this be from improper playing? Her instructor doesn't seem to notice any problem with her playing.
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Author: Al
Date: 2001-10-16 18:04
Don't speculate.
A dermatologist will prescribe the proper medication for her particular problem.
Al
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Author: Peter
Date: 2001-10-16 22:48
I totally agree with the taking her to the doctor to check out the injury, try to find a cause and repair it, however:
That has only happened to me when I've used rough reeds. Is the injury inside or outside the lip?
(Outside the lip: Has she been using the same brand of reeds all along? Inside the lip: Does she have unusually sharp bottom teeth? Does she have an excessively firm embouchure?
Rico LaVoz reeds put a miserable hole in me like that once, on the outside of the lip, where it makes contact with the reed. What brand of reeds does she use? If it could be the reeds, try gettting her better reeds, Vandoren, Marca, Glotin.
A classmate of mine many years ago had a nervous habit of biting at the mouthpiece, in between playing, with his lip curled over his bottom teeth. He regularly mangled the inside of his lip doing that.
It never happened to me very often, but when I got a "woodwinds" lip sore, inside or out, for any reason, I was taught to use straight iodine. I pull out the lip, dry it, swab it with an iodine-soaked Q-tip, hold it for a moment while it dries and by the next day, it is usually completely healed, or at least nearly 100% so, depending on the extent of the hole.
You are not supposed to use iodine internally, but it is used in small quantities in water purification (about two drops per quart) and it is ingested in even more minute quantities in common table salt.
I was taught the creams don't work as well because they promote skin moisture and it takes longer to dry out the injury and make it heal "tough."
Up to you, but the doctor idea is still best.
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Author: Jeanne
Date: 2001-10-17 03:25
For about a year in Junior high I got a horrible sore below my lip on the outside. I asked my teacher what could cause it, and she didn't know. I later found out that I was rubbing my reed against my lip, and because it was a poor brand of reed (rico). I worked on better posture/ways to hold my clarinet and got a new brand of reed and the sore went away in a while. Using blistex constantly helped too.
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