I had fixed braces fitted yesterday. I will have to wear them for 12-18 months. I have had a go at playing the clarinet and it is very uncomfortable, as it is for both eating and talking at the moment. I haven't tried playing the bassoon yet.

One of my friends plays clari but she has removable ones that she takes out to play. The girl I learn bassoon with has fixed braces but she has had them since before she started, and seems to be used to it.

I am quite worried that I will find playing really painful, as I have one exam this term and another next session.

My question is, what experiences have other people had, related to this? Also, the metal rubs against the inside of my lower lip and causes it to become red and inflamed, can anyone suggest a suitable gel/cream, or should I speak to my orthodontist?

Thanks

Nick.

I had fixed braces on my top teeth, and apart from being a little bit uncomfortable at first they were fine for playing clarinet with! Can imagine if you have them on the bottom teeth it may be slightly more uncomfortable but give it a few weeks and you won't notice they are there - honest! Bonjela is great for the sores that the braces can cause.

Sorry, don't know about bassoon, but I wouldn't worry too much about the clarinet playing!

Do a search for the mouth ulcers thread I started last term, and use the stuff that Bagpuss recommended on that. I used it when I had a brace and was able to keep playing (and flutes are much worse for fixed braces than other wind instruments!).

see reply in scream thread!

I had braces for four years and I play oboe. once you get used to them it will be fine.

My sister used bonjella on the inside of her lips. There is another one which is much stronger, but it numbs your lip and can cause dribbling....

Sister also played oboe with fixed braces on and she didn't complain... However...we did so she plays the piano now

Do keep us posted as to how you get on, madbassoonist. My daughter is likely to have "train tracks" fitted in the autumn and we are nervously wondering how this will affect her clarinet playing. Fortunately, she is getting her Grade 6 out of the way this term, so she should be able to get gradually used to playing, while wearing the brace, some time after that.

Meanwhile, don't despair. It's very early days. My son found his fixed braces very uncomfortable for the first 24 hours but has not had much, if any, discomfort in the almost 18 months since. He has taken up the euphonium since having the brace fitted, so if all else fails you could always try that!!!!

I had braces for a few years, and I found that orthodontic wax was the best "quick relief" because all I had to do was mould some of it onto the brackets, and that was it!

Flute I didn't really find a problem, but I did have to readjust my embouchure completely. Piccolo, however... Clarinet was absolutely fine after a week or so. Oboe was, erm, interesting, but the embouchure is tighter and smaller than that required for bassoon. It just takes some getting used to, and the up-side is that once you get them off in a year or so, your sound is so much better

Talk to your teacher(s) about it, I'm sure he/she/they have had previous pupils with braces and can advise you on what you will have to change to accomodate the large amount of metal that has somehow made its way into your mouth. In the meantime, good luck!

I had a removable brace, but was an oboist at the time: the worst was the day or two after each adjustment to it, when it was sore to form an embouchure (taking it out made no difference, in fact - so I just left it in). At the time the brace was mooted, the orthodontist had been all for doing the railway track job and whipping out four teeth into the bargain: horrified, my mum asked for a second opinion, and the second guy managed my particular problem with a removable brace, having said he'd still need to remove one gnasher....but in the end I kept me teef. So, though I don't have any advice about the lip getting stuck (beyond saying I do remember contemporaries complaining about that one), I would suggest avoiding any major adjustments to it in the week or so before an exam, if you can .

I didn't play the recorder with a fixed brace apart from for a couple of weeks when I started, so don't really have much advice to give as far as playing an instrument is concerned. I did, however, play for a couple of months with a removable brace (I had been told I HAD to wear it 24 hours a day) and that was an absolute nightmare as far as tonguing was concerned. Having had both types of brace, I would say train tracks are definitely the easiest to live with.

Your teeth will stop hurting after around a week and then you'll probably find that playing will be ok again (although maybe you will have to adjust your technique slightly). Your teeth will hurt again each time they tighten your braces, but I found that each time, it got better a bit quicker than before.

If you ask, your orthadontist will probably give you some wax to put on bits that rub. I could never get the stuff to stay stuck where it was meant to and ended up deciding it would be easier to put up with ulcers at the back of my mouth than to be constantly mucking around with wax, but you may manage with it better.

Thanks everyone for your helpful comments and suggestions.

Flossie/Tori_flute - I will try bonjella, Pikkoloflautist/Sarah123 I will also try the relief wax!
CJB - yes I agree that good things will come, not least being able to eat apples properly! I expect my recorders are much more neglected than yours ever were, I really should play them more, but...
It will probably improve my playing when they come off, and it will only be a year or so until then, if they keep in good condition.
Anacrusis - I hope I can avoid adjustments coming up to an exam. Unfortunately I don't have the exam dates yet, so can only wait and see. Next appointment is July 3rd. Oh oh, doesn't look good, our Head of Music normally tries to schedule the visits for the first or second week of July...
Halka - I think I'll pass on euphonium, thanks!

I'll keep you all posted, and also Halka, let us know how your daughter gets on in the autumn.

Nick.

I had braces for about 2 years and I found it didn't really affect my playing too much. I did get ulcers though

I know someone who got braces, changed their embouchure, and now has had to start at the begining not even being able to play a scale
moral of the story:
don't change your embouchure!!

The conductor of my windband is a trombonist. A few weeks ago he said that he had just read an article about a new "mouth guard" for children with braces. It is made of plastic and you slot it over your teeth and braces. He was talking about it for brass players and whilst it wouldn't solve the embouchure problem it would stop you injuring the inside of your mouth. It is supposed to be available from orthodentists (this is in France but I'm assuming if it has arrived in France (who tend to be very behind on anything musical) it will also be in the UK).

I'll try not to... but being a (relative) beginner, I will have to check with my teacher, especially because my bassoon tends to go sharp and I have to be quite careful with the tuning.

kerioboe - at the orthodontist I did see these mouth-guards, we didn't get one, but having had problems with it rubbing against the inside of my mouth, I am considering getting one when we go back for the next check.

On your next visit (which probably won't be that long away) take your clarinet mouthpiece/bassoon crook+reed with you and try them out when the orthodontist's tightened the braces. Sometimes bits catch more than other times, and that can be spotted immediately and adjusted (it's worth being fussy, I doubt the orthodontist will mind).

My daughter had braces top and bottom for about the same time as you're facing, and got on fine with bassoon (with proviso she took crook/reed along the first time), but mouths vary in shape so fingers crossed for you. (She found wax great but again people vary -so worth trying everything)

I've had fixed braces for 2 1/2 years...and I'm still going with the bottom set !!!!
As far as rubbing against cheeks is concered, my cheeks have certainly got tougher the longer I've had my braces! Also, someone recommended to me scrunching up a piece of cigarette paper and slotting it over the brace when you're playing....I did try it out and it stops the rubbing but it kind of disitigrates in your mouth ....OK if you are really struggling though!!!
Remeber your teeth will look amazing afterwards and you can go round like this

Why is it that in my youth hardly anyone had a brace, whereas now it seems rare not to be given one? Is it a clever trick on the part of orthodontists to increase demand for their services, or have people's mouths suddenly got so much worse?

I had too many teeth in my top jaw and one canine tooth came out too high up. The dentist just pulled this one out and the rest of the top teeth are straight. My dentist here (so twenty odd years later) commented that now they would have removed a pre-molar tooth and fitted braces to bring the canine tooth down in line with the others. The reasoning being that canine teeth are stronger than pre-molars. So I guess practices have changed.

On the other hand, my daughter has very mis-aligned teeth as a result of an accident and so I think she would have needed braces even had she been born thirty years ago.

Yes... by then I won't have grinned properly for at least a year, so it will be great!
I'm also looking forward to eating apples again, biting into them, rather than having them cut up (although I had apple crumble today which was very nice).

I've found that I've got used to the braces much more quickly than I expected. It helps that I can talk properly - my friend got retainer braces put in this morning, and she now has a slight lithp I mean lisp! It probably also helps that these fixed ones can't be taken out for a break, which would make me get used to them faster.

I had orthodontal work done in the UK more than 30 years ago, and my dentist did just what your French dentist describes. My canine teeth were pulled down with a pair of hooked wires after removing premolars.

What I don't understand is why, while my "brace" was a removable plate that could be taken out for cleaning and the like, and was hardly noticeable, apart from the hooky wires, today's devices are almost always ugly train track things. When I asked the orthodontist about alternatives to these for my daughter (because of possible effects on clarinetting) she implied that the only alternative was to do nothing.. Fortunately my daughter seems to think train tracks are really cool... though I'm still worried about the clarinet. She does currently have a removable "twin block appliance" but just to alter relative positions of upper and lower jaw before the serious work of straightening the teeth. She certainly lisps like mad with that in!

Madbassoonist, I'm glad to hear you're quickly getting used to your brace.