Dentistry and Embouchure

[Wilktone]

A friend of mine, David Guion, has recently contacted me for advice about how a player's dentistry can affect the embouchure. I told summarized some of what Dr. Reinhardt wrote in the "Encyclopedia" (about the extent of my knowledge) and directed him to a couple other sources, including here. Since I'm curious what some of you might have to say about this, I'll post some of my e-mail response to him.

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Dr. Reinhardt had, as far as I can tell, examined the brass player's embouchure in more detail than any other individual. By accounts I have heard directly from some of Reinhardt's students he could watch someone talk and by looking at their teeth, jaw, lips, etc., tell which embouchure type they would play most efficiently with.

I have not studied directly with Reinhardt, just one of his students, Doug Elliott. Doug taught me a lot about Reinhardt's embouchure types by simplifying them into three standard types (which I have posted on my web site). From there, I have delved into "pure" Reinhardt with some help from a few other Reinhardt students who participate on the Trumpet Herald Forum
(http://www.trumpetherald.com/forum/). Many of those guys are very knowledable about Reinhardt's system.

I'm still learning.

> That reminds me: I have been thinking for some months that probably the most
> neglected aspect of trombone playing is the player's dentition. I published a
> bibliography of articles about wind instruments from dental literature in the
> ITA Journal some twenty years ago and have been thinking of following it up
> with a survey of literature on how a player's dentition affects his or her
> playing and what difference it should make to their teachers. Richard's
> comment make it clear that you are better qualified than I to write such an
> article.

Maybe I'm more qualified. But then again, I wasn't very qualified to write my doctoral dissertation when I started. It was through research and the desire to learn that I became qualified.

> Will you write one for the OTJ? If for some reason you can't, can you
> recommend recent literature that I should be aware of for my own attempt?

It sounds like it would be a valuable addition to trombone pedagogy and performance. I am quite busy right now with teaching and other projects. I am very willing to help you with research, and maybe even co-author it if you need help to that point, but can't take the time right now to get into such a research paper.

Here is a web site I discovered by a dentist who also plays trombone.

http://www.jazzer.de/bmd/index.htm

Glancing through his photos of various teeth formations I get the impression that he is not familiar with some of the various embouchure types which can result from some of these different teeth structures. Check out this page on his site:

http://www.jazzer.de/bmd/dental/homedent.htm

He states that "angle class 1" is the "ideal" teeth formation for playing a brass instrument. I'm not sure why he gets that idea, since there are too many examples of fantastic brass players who don't have that type of formation. Perhaps he is more interested in drumming up dental business to "fix" someone's embouchure or perhaps he is just ignorant.

Check out the photo of "angle class 3." I have a trumpet student right now with that kind of teeth structure. Players who's lower teeth protrudes in front of the upper teeth will almost always need to place the mouthpiece lower on the lips and direct the airstream upwards. In Reinhardt's embouchure classification these players would fit his Type II or Type IIA embouchure (identical to Reinhardt's Type IV and Type IVA when playing, the only difference is that the Type IV's don't have the protruding lower teeth when resting). All these embouchure types direct the airstream upwards, since the mouthpiece is placed low on the lips and the lower lip predominates inside the mouthpiece cup.

His photos of the "frontal open bite" can also suggest an embouchure type. Players who's front teeth meet when closed (one set of teeth do not protrude beyond the others) seem to always need to place the mouthpiece either very high on the lips (Reinhardt's Type I) and direct the airstream downward or very low on the lips (Reinhardt's Type IA) and direct the airstream upwards.

As an aside, when you get into Reinhardt's embouchure types (check out his "Encyclopedia of the Pivot System" for complete explanation and diagrams of these embouchure types) you will notice that Types I and Types II (with the subtypes) are identical when playing to either some of the Type III's and Type IV's. The difference is how the structure of the teeth and jaw are when resting. Because of this, many Reinhardt students just talk about them in terms of the Types III and Types IV.

Sheesh, did I say I didn't have time to write an article? I think I just started! At any rate, I think I'd start investigating Reinhardt's embouchure types and the tooth structures he identified that correspond to some of his embouchure types.

Since this may produce some good advice, I'm going to paste this e-mail message into a post in the "Donald S. Reinhardt" section of the Trumpet Herald Forum and see what kind of response it gets. Come over and check it out if you're curious to see what some of those cats have to say about this.
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Any thoughts?

Dave


_________________
David Wilken
dave@trombone.org
http://faculty.adams.edu/~dmwilken

[ This Message was edited by: Wilktone on 2002-11-16 12:34 ]

[DSR]

Haha...I laughed when I read this: "DIASTHEMA:
 A space between middle incisal teeth, could be a handicap when occuring too large. Sample picture shows situation."

Jon Faddis has a grand canyon in between his two front teeth. Need I say anymore.

So far it appears as if this "system" is very far from being comprehensive, systematic, or exact.

I wonder if he's read Doc's materials?

[ This Message was edited by: DSR on 2002-11-16 14:29 ]

[BeboppinFool]

Maybe this isn't precisely on topic, but Doc told me that every 7 years I need to get dental impressions made. He used to tell us that if we had some sort of accident (God forbid) and needed dental reconstruction, having impressions will lessen the amount of long-range chop difficulties.

If you lose teeth, most dentists will put in replacement teeth that "look nice" and have nothing to do with what we had originally. If they can match what you had from your impressions, there's a good chance that you'll be able to come back to brass playing with minimal negative side-effects.

The reason for the 7 years is that we go through a complete "dental cycle" every 7 years, and the changes are enough to warrant new impressions.

It's been over 6 years since I had impressions made . . . time to think about it again. Doc told me that when I get them made, put them in a box, and write the date on the box, and tuck them away in a drawer so I don't lose them. Let's see, I have a set from '78, from '85, and from '96. I missed one "cycle" in there . . . good thing I didn't need them then, eh?

Rich
_________________
Puttin’ On The Ritz