Abstract
The criteria of performing a correct embouchure can differ according to particular craniofacial features. Different teaching techniques can also lead to specific patterns of a musician embouchure, where playing in a relaxed position is one of the major indications. In order to understand if there is a “perfect embouchure”, several techniques were used on the analysis of the embouchure of three different wind instrumentalists. Force sensing resistors were applied to the mouthpiece of a clarinet, infrared thermography was performed to a brass player, while a bassoon player underwent two lateral cephalograms. The examinations techniques were chosen to take advantage of the possible information that could be taken from each musician, on addition to the evidence of the intra-oral exam. The force analysis showed that the clarinetist had an asymmetrical force distribution among the two central incisors. The infrared thermography showed that the tuba player had thermal asymmetry at the region correspondent to the masseters muscles possibly related to the teeth position. The lateral cephalograms showed a 10° posterior rotation of the mandible during the embouchure of the bassoon player. Therefore, understanding the anatomical limitations of the orofacial region, which may lead to an asymmetrical embouchure, is fundamental to analyze and treat a wind instrumentalist within a dental appointment.
Highlights
A wind instrumentalist learns how to play its instrument since a young age of 7-8 years old
The aim of this paper is to demonstrate the usefulness of each technique as a complementary tool that can be used in dentistry to analyze wind instrumentalists and their embouchure
3.1 Clarinet player Force Sensing Resistor (FSR) sensors analysis The FSR sensors allow clinicians, researchers and performers to determine the region of the upper central incisors that exerts more force in the single reed instrument player, or even quantify the existing forces applied on the lower lip that is retruded iJOE ‒ Vol 15, No 13, 2019
Summary
A wind instrumentalist learns how to play its instrument since a young age of 7-8 years old. While music student in a school, conservatory of music university, the wind instrumentalist learns respiratory techniques and how to hold the instrument, how to keep his/her back on an upward position, and how to perform a centered embouchure in order to play the most comfortable as possible. This article intends to highlight the specificities involved in the embouchure of wind instrumentalists in order to clarify what is a perfect embouchure. For this purpose, three different techniques were used - Force Sensing Resistor (FSR), Infrared Thermal imaging (IRT) and lateral cephalograms (LC), respectively to a single reed instrument player, a brass player and a double reed instrument player. Lateral cephalograms can help to understand, visualize and quantify the mechanisms involved during the embouchure procedure, leading eventually to the perfect embouchure
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