Is further research on dental health of wind-instrument musicians needed?
A study dating back to 1985 by Jan Bergstrm and Sren Eliasson of Department of Periodontology and Oral Radiology, School of Dentistry, Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, assessed “Dental care habits, oral hygiene, and gingival health in Swedish professional musicians”. In this study, the results showed no differences in the oral health between wind and non-wind instrument musicians.
A Case Report in 2000 by Glenn Isaacson and Robert Sataloff, Professor and Chairman for the Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery at College of Medicine in Philadelphia, titled “Bilateral laryngoceles in a young trumpet player” describes the diagnosis of a 16 year old trumpet player who started playing at 9 years of age, and as a result had bilateral laryngoceles with protruded air-containing pouches in the laryngeal saccules.
Departments of Otolaryngology that treat or research conditions, such as bilateral laryngoceles, often fall under Divisions of Dentistry and Oral Surgery, such as at The John Hopkins Hospital. Here researchers also look into ways of protecting the vocal cords, particularly of singers. Overusing the voice strains the lining of the cords causing chronic hoarseness. Dr Amir Kamburov, a dentist in Southwest London specialising in Cosmetic Dentistry and Functional Jaw Development, says that vocalists particularly benefit from dental treatments for improved singing that relies on laryngeal vocal folds, pharynx, tongue, lips, Temporomandibular Joint and muscles. Many musicians also rely on cosmetic dentistry to improve aesthetic appearance for performances.
Besides these prior reports and solutions sought for wind-instrument musicians and vocalists who wear braces, such as the guidelines published by The British Orthodontic Society (BOS), there appears to be little research into the topic of “dental health of wind-instrument musicians”. Does playing a wind-instrument frequently cause harm to oral health over the long term?
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