May Johnny or Janie play the clarinet?: The Eastman study: A report on the orthodontic evaluations of college-level and professional musicians who play brass and woodwind instruments

Abstract

It is apparent from the findings in this study that although there are some significant differences in the incidence of certain pertinent oral and facial entities between some wind-instrument musicians and their counterpart controls, among mature persons, there is no reason to categorically prohibit all persons with potential malocclusions from studying music. On the other hand, it could be folly to permit any or all instrument pursuits without an extensive, complete, thorough orthodontic analysis. Each case must be counseled on its own merits. In addition, each orthodontically treated patient must be observed closely in the posttreatment retention phase, which should probably be much longer than usual, with particular attention devoted to prevention of lingual collapse or retroclination of the mandibular anterior teeth.