cmcdougall

Guys im getting my wisdom teeth out about 3 months from now, will it adversely affect my playing? How long will it be before im playing again??

Manny Laureano

CMac,

Generally, it's not that big a deal. I had one tooth out and was back playing a program of Strauss and Wagner in four days but, again, that was only one tooth. I would say count on being off the horn for about a week and get back to it the way you would after, well... a week off.

Anything can happen but all things being normal a week should be about right, give or take. If at all possible, use an oral surgeon and do the general anesthetic. Let them know you play trumpet and to have them lubricate your lips well.

ML

trickg

I got all four of my wisdom teeth pulled one fine Friday afternoon when I was a senior in high school. I guess I was fairly young to have them in fully. (I was 18) Anyway, there really was only one of them that needed to come out - I had room for the others, but since wisdom teeth are so far back and can be somewhat problematic because they are hard to brush, and therefore on some people are prone to cavities, I opted to have all four pulled.

I was lucky in that I had very little swelling an only a minor bit of lingering pain. The only place that was swollen was my lower right jaw where the one problematic, impacted tooth was located, and the swelling was gone by the next morning. I had scheduled to be off of work the next day because I worked in a donut shop and the Saturday shift started sometime between 2:00 and 3:00 am and I didn't know if I would be up for it since some people really get knocked out by having wisdom teeth pulled. As it turned out, I could have gone in that day, but I had no way of knowing that in advance.

But back to the trumpet - I tried to play in band class the following Monday, and simply couldn't. While I normally didn't have a lot of lingering pain, it did hurt when tried to play trumpet, so I took a few days off until some of the trauma had a chance to heal a bit. Something else that was startling to me was how much having those four teeth pulled affected my range and endurance. It could be that I picked up some bad habits trying to compensate for the change in my mouth, but it was actually months before things started feeling "right" again.

I'm not trying to scare you, but that was my experience. Removing four fairly large teeth from the back of my mouth made quite a difference in the size and shape of my oral cavity and while there were some benefits to be had (personally, I think my sound became bigger) it also had some detractors. But something to keep in mind is that I was a high school kid, still trying to develop and embouchure, and I didn't have set practice routines - being primarily self taught, I was still bumbling and fumbling trying to figure stuff out on my own.

Good luck to you. Just make sure that you give those holes time to heal and if you find yourself with some ensuing chops problems because of getting your teeth pulled, I'm sure Manny will have something good for you to get you back on track.

eisprl

I had all four of my wisdorm teeth taken out. And they were not even through the gums at that point so it was considered sugery. I was out of playing for like, a month (almost). I actually hear of some cases in which it helps you in the long run because it opens up the oral cavity (can anyone clarify this?). I wouldn't be able to tell a difference seeing as I had my teeth taken out waaaay back in high school. And it has been since then that I had made all my progress.

I just had my other trumpet player in our quintet have her teeth out a few weeks ago but it looks like she may have come back too early. The stiched areads are now infected and strained. (Scary scary stuff)

Please be carful not to be in a big rush when they come out!

Eric