My lips are swollen

[Bach Man 1X]

i MY LIPS ARE GETTING SWOLLEN FROM PLAYING A LOT I GUEST WHAT SHOILD I DO FOR THEM OUT SIDE OF ICE!!!!!!!!!!!

[kzem]

The best and most effective thing to do is take some time off, however, I know that's not always the case.
I've heard many "cures" for swollen lips, here's what I remember-(these are not mine, just what I've gathered over time)
1. Take some Aspirin, or any type of anti-inflammatory
2. Soak your chops in luke-warm salty water (apparently the warmth helps with the blood flow, and the salt opens up the pores, thus increasing healing time)
3. LOTS of slow, quiet and well spaced lip fluttering
4. Massage chops with vitamin E oil

That's all I remember for now- I'm sure there are MANY other "remedies" that players have used.
More importantly, find out how and why your chops became swollen, and work on eliminating the bad habits (too much pressure)

Kurt Z

[histrumpet]

For what it is worth,

I feel that in alot of cases swollen lips are the result of using too much mouthpiece pressure. No, not in all cases, just some. I see it with players that are using large diameter mouthpieces to play in the upper register where it is common to use mouthpiece pressure to flesh out the higher notes. I am not saying that is the case here but this is not uncommon. It is possible to get a good rich sound on a smaller mouthpiece but the use of pressure has to be overcome. Of course not everyone will agree with me but I feel that as a player and his chops develope and mature it makes sense for their mouthpiece to become smaller not bigger. As the player's chops develope he is able to control his air stream and embouchure muscles so playing the smaller mouthpiece should not become a problem. If the player goes the other way and uses pressure he will need a progressively larger mouthpiece as time goes on. Smashing the lips with pressure compresses the lips and makes the aperature smaller until the mouthpiece is filled and progress stops until a bigger mouthpiece is used. Well, anyway, didn't mean to run on but you may take a look at the pressure angle and rather than treat the symptoms fix the root cause of the problem. Hope this helps.

Oh yeah, what Kurt said.

Bruce

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[ This Message was edited by: histrumpet on 2003-10-01 22:54 ]

[badebop]

Try changing your embouchure to BE. It'll make a great difference.

[Jonny Boy]

I used to suffer with swollen chops all the time. And this was probably due to excessive mpc pressure, brought on by insufficient air flow. Thinking about mpc pressure only made things worse. Go to the ROOT of the evil.
One thing I found was that my top lip used to take most the punishment and therefore would swell the most. This meant that when I went to play the next day, the mpc would need to sit higher up for it to "feel normal". This got me in to a lot of problems, like needing to use more and more pressure to manipulate my lips in to the right place (catch 22 situation).
When I started to put the mpc where it sounded right it often felt wrong to start with (lower than normal) but invariably would end up feeling and sounding great!

I wouldn't try changing anything whilst your chops are swollen!

[trjeam]

aside from ice what should you do?

..... not play as much!