TromboneChat

Greetings fellow trombonists!

I have severely impacted wisdom teeth and they cause me some problems but I have learned to manage them with single tuft brushes, floss and hot drinks (to rinse the area) but my dentist says that sooner or later they will have to go. I was on a list at the hospital to get it all sorted in early 2020 but they Covid hit and it all got put on hold. I have recently had a meeting with my dental surgeon and he said that since 2020 there has been some surface level decay on the lower teeth so a coronectomy is out of the question and according to my scans my nerves seem to pass right through the teeth. He said that this puts me at a high risk of facial numbness. He also said that in 20 years on the job with tens of thousands of teeth extracted he has only ever known one person whose face went numb and never recovered. I am putting off the extraction for as long as possible but both the dental surgeon and my regular dentist told me that I will only be able to avoid it for a couple of years tops before they HAVE to come out due to the progressive decay.

Can you still play the trombone with a numb face? Or should I mentally prepare myself for the possibility that I will never play trombone again? Does anyone else have experience of facial numbness after this procedure and if so could you still play? If you couldn't did you regain feeling and return to playing at some point after you regained feeling? How long did it take? Tell me everything!

Any advice or counsel on this matter would be greatly appreciated as I love playing the trombone and I find myself worrying about this all the time. I have ask my dentist and the surgeon but they both are fairly vague saying that it all depends on cases and neither of them know anything of brass playing.

Thank you kindly

Alex

Prepare yourself for the possibility of temporary or permanent numbness. You don't really have an option.
Get a second opinion.
Get a third opinion.
Find a surgeon who is skilled enough to do everything possible to avoid the nerve.
Prepare yourself to pay for the possibility of very expensive surgery.
Yes it's possible to play with limited feeling in your face. One member here has that situation due to being electrocuted.

Good luck with it, Alex.

When I had to have my wisdom teeth taken out, the surgeon told me it would take about an hour. It ended up taking over 90 minutes, with half of the time spent on one tooth that he took out in pieces. (Three pieces, if memory serves.) He told me after it was all over that there was a curve in the root with an extra piece wrapped around a branch of the trigeminal (5th Cranial) nerve, and he had to take it out in pieces to avoid damaging the nerve.

Ask your surgeon (and your second and third opinions) if it's possible to take that tooth out in pieces to avoid damage to the nerve. It can be done: find a surgeon who takes it as seriously as you do. With all that said, there aren't really any guarantees in surgery, so you have to be prepared for the worst case outcome even as you try to guard against it.

It is possible to play with numbness, it just takes some getting used to. I do not think that your trombone playing days are over, but it could likely become very different.

Take care of your health first. Full stop.

Then worry about side effects which may or may not happen when and if they appear.

Worst possible scenario is that you get a permanent numbness and can't play a brass or wind instrument anymore. That's hardly anything because there are tons of other instruments you can play instead.

And I would like to remind you that the drummer for Def Leppard only has one arm. If you love music, then you will find a way.

If the nerve is not severed (e.g. cut), but only irritated, our rule of thumb was that the chances are good to recover from numbness after a period of about 6 months. BUT: It is NOT a promise.

John, retired dentist

Numbness is normal for 24 hours but if it last longer than it should, then try visiting your doctor again. In your case it's really a very long time, Might be because of the nerves. A great orthodontics doctor can help you very soon.https://foresthillvillageorthodontics.com/

Kiara,
I'm still confused. You say that you're a "medical lab person" but no indication that you're a trombonist.
Most of your posts have to do with dentistry, and some seem like marketing.
What is your connection with tromboning?