TromboneChat

Hello, It has been a little over 2 weeks since I have gotten my wisdom teeth out and feel fine. I think I am ready to play, but don't know if there are any precautions I should take before I jump back into playing, if you have any advice it would be greatly appreciated. Thank!s

2 weeks should be fine to start playing again.

My thought experiment is that if you are cleared to eat and chew food and drink and swallow water in this mouth i doubt that playing the trombone will exceed any of the stresses that the affected areas have already encountered.

Check with doctor? Oral surgeon knows how your procedure went and whether there are any special concerns with return to playing.

Check with your dentist/oral surgeon. Then go with how it feels. For me (25+ years ago), it took about a month before things felt more-or-less normal, given the new holes. Pressure is okay; pain is not. If there’s any pain, stop and try again in a week.

Any brass player should discuss that with the surgeon before and after the procedure.

My oral surgeon did an MRI before extracting #13, and said there was plenty of room and plenty of bone so I shouldn't have any issues.

I guess maybe I'm luckier now that I don't have #13.

I'd just say to ease back into playing - don't pick up your horn and immediately try to belt out the highest loudest excerpts you know. After my wisdom teeth removal I started with mezzopiano long tones in the staff, then to slow relaxed lip slurs, and got back into everything else as it felt comfortable. Maybe a week or so of gentle practice before I felt back to 100% playing-wise. More of the difficulty was probably the time off on my embouchure, rather than any remaining discomfort with the teeth.

When I had mine out (lower jaw only) it also made a difference to my bite and lower jaw position generally so it took a while to get my jaw muscles used to the changes.
In my case the advice was to leave it a fortnight before thinking about playing again, and it was a month before I worked up to playing bass trombone full force again.

When I later had a molar removed I was able to be back playing 3 days later, but the injury to the gums was far less that time round.

It will also depend on the type of extraction you had. A simple extraction (which I had for #16) where they use the forceps to pull the tooth out of your mouth has a much faster recovery time than a surgical extraction (which I will have some time down the road for the other 3). Surgical means they have to cut into your gum bone and remove them which takes signifcantly longer to heal from and recover. From the simple extraction I probably could have played after a week or two, but I waited longer. A surgical I probably would wait 3 weeks to a month just to make sure you avoid dry socket.

I wanted to add, I just got my wisdom teeth out 4 days ago and am going in on my 13th day post op. To hopefully get cleared to play again. In the mean time, i have been wondering what everyone thinks is a good approach to the instrument and what people’s experiences have been regarding playing the horn after two weeks of nothing.

Do some easy lip slurs once you're cleared. The first day back should be about having fun and making an easy sound. Reflecting on what you feel and hear. Nothing taxing.

I had all 4 wisdom teeth extracted on the same day. The oral surgeon normally only did 2 at a time. He was a fellow 6H player and understood not going through it twice. I was playing 3 days later. 5 hour practice sessions. The air was going some different paths in my mouth but I made the adjustment. Don’t mix Scotch with the pain medicine.

Hello folks .

Just a while ago I had a two weeks out of any playing , because of a medical intervention .

To get again in shape , to me the main thing is to be careful during the first 2/3 days you start again to practice .

So , I put some rest between every thing that I am playing . If I am playing , let say , two half notes legato exercise starting in 1st position from middle Bb going to F , then 2nd position A going to E , etc , I do this way : I play the Bb - F , then I wait one full minute , then I play A - E , then I wait another full minute , and so on until the end of the exercise . So , to play an exercise like this in all the seventh positions , it take around 7 minutes ( maybe 1 minute of playing , and 6 minutes of rest) .
I keep do this way also on others exercises . I suggest to play just some easy lip slurs , as Harrison said above . Practice for 30/ 40 minutes this way , then rest a couple of hours , then do another 30 / 40 minutes . At day 3 , I am basically in full shape again .

This is a pretty weird way of doing , but ,at least for me , it works very well .I suppose that all this rest between the playing can help the brain to "reset" himself correctly , after a "long" period of rest as two week can be .

I think that is not a matter of physical weakness of the embouchure , rathers a brain- connected thing , that give us this sensation of discomfort we have , if we stay away from the horn for a while.

Regards
Giancarlo