A recent topic on the Trumpet Herald forum spun off into a discussion of tooth structure and how it influences a brass musician’s embouchure. The thread mentioned some research on the topic that I wasn’t already familiar with, so I did some digging and ended up finding a newer paper from 2012, The Relationship of Oral Anatomy and Trumpet Performance: Prediction of Physical Talent by H. Zeynep Cilingir.
Cilingir got access to some very advanced dental imaging equipment and designed a very good study to look at trumpet players’ anatomical features and looked for correlations between playing characteristics and dental anatomy. My own dissertation looked in part at this topic and my results here were inconclusive. Cilingir’s research did find some interesting results.
I’ve blogged about this topic before, particularly in relation to the ideas of Matty Shiner (here and here). Shiner would tell students who didn’t have what he considered to be an “ideal” tooth structure for brass playing to undergo an orthodontic procedure.
There are several problematic issues, which I go into detail on the earlier blog posts. Briefly, Shiner never published his research and what we know about it from interviews he gave would almost certainly not get IRB approval. There are massive ethical and even legal concerns with how he went about this.
Red flags aside, that doesn’t mean that his ideas weren’t correct. Cilingir’s paper took a good look at Shiner’s ideas and found some interesting things.
In this research, the relationship between the rotation angle of the central incisors (Inter-incisal Rotation) and performance skills was analyzed in order to further investigate the Shiner brothers’ theory. The results showed an association between Inter-incisal Rotation Angle and Flexibility; participants with a more pronounced “V” shape between the central incisors received higher scores from Flexibility A and B exercises. However, no significant association was found between the Inter-incisal Rotation Angle and High Range or Endurance scores as hypothesized by the Shiners and Franks.
– Cilingir, p. 65
So there was a positive association with lip flexibility and the V shape Shiner felt was ideal, but there was no relationship between that dental structure and high range or endurance. Interestingly, Cilingir didn’t find any relationship between high range and daily practice or years of experience either.
Cilingir also find some relationship between the amount of space in the back of the mouth (Inter-molar Width measurements) and certain types of tonguing. Subjects with a wider back part of the mouth tended to do better with multiple tonguing and flutter tonguing. There wasn’t any correlation found between the general alignment of the upper teeth and any playing characteristics, although there was a statistically significant correlation between well-aligned lower teeth along with multiple tonguing and flutter tonguing as well.
Pretty much all of the anatomical features that Cilingir looked at were characteristics that come from what I think are mostly “arm chair” speculation. Like a lot of thoughts on brass embouchure, many players and teachers describe what they think they are doing, and then leap to the assumption that not only is that how they actually play, but is also the best way for everyone. Cilingir’s paper is, to my knowledge, the best serious look at whether the speculation holds water.
Other dental characteristics Cilingir examined included:
- Overjet
- Inclination of the first molars (the molars are said by some to “support facial muscles at the side of the mouth”)
- Slightly protruded and wider teeth
There wasn’t a relationship found between the above bullet points and any trumpet skills.
Almost every brass musician who has had some dental work done knows that the tooth structure is an important part of the brass embouchure. The support of the teeth and gums underneath the lips and mouthpiece rim is a vital part of embouchure technique and when an alteration is made it usually requires some time to adjust technique accordingly. Sometimes the playing is immediately better as a result of dental work too.
However, that doesn’t mean that anyone has the inside track on what dental characteristics relate to good brass playing. Even Cilingir was very careful to qualify the findings several times. Here’s one example:
However, none of the results of this study should be considered conclusive. After all, music performance is a combination of numerous aspects of human mind and body, which are full of endless capabilities. I believe that anyone, regardless of their physical makeup, can succeed becoming an excellent performer with enough determination.
– Cilingir, p. v
Someday I hope that we’ll have a much more accurate understanding of how anatomical features influence brass technique, but we’re not really very close yet. Before we can get there we not only want to pin down the dental characteristics Cilingir looked at, but also learn how those features are influenced by things like lip size and texture, oral cavity size and shape, tongue size and shape, the degree of the musician’s malocclusion, and more. Not to mention the variables of what embouchure type the player is using and whether or not they are playing correctly that way.
Anyone who recommends specific dental work in order to improve brass technique almost certainly doesn’t know what they are talking about. If you need to adjust your teeth, do so under the recommendation of a dental professional and do not expect it to make for any improvements in your brass playing.
