My daughter is on summer break from college and we have a consult appointment with an oral surgeon regarding her wisdom teeth (one on the bottom is starting to come in). Not sure if she will need all or some removed and I realize there is a difference with ease in top vs bottom wisdom teeth and simple extraction vs impacted. That being said, IF she needs them removed we would have it done after her summer festival obligations and a family trip overseas - about 2 weeks before she would be due back at college. Just want feedback from other people with the time off of practicing needed after wisdom tooth removal. It is very hard with a performance major to find windows of time that she can take off of practicing/playing.
An aside based on our own recent experience: Wanted to have D’s (non-musician) wisdom teeth removed over spring break in March and were not able to get an appointment until June: Oral surgeons are sometimes scheduled way out - If you can reserve a date within your narrow window NOW and cancel if it is not necessary, you might consider! Best of luck to you and your D.
I have a vocalist, but I don’t imagine it’s that different. She had all four removed a day or two after returning from a summer program last summer, before school started. If I remember correctly she was advised not to sing for a week to ten days. You do not want to put stress on the incision sites as they heal, because, as bad as not being able to practice is, dry socket is worse.
Two Ds had the procedure - both string players. The dramatic one took a week to ten days to recover and any thought of putting instrument to chin was abhorrent even without the additional stress of wind performance. The less dramatic one took two days. Other than personality differences, the less dramatic kid ate lots of pineapple before the procedure, as recommended on CC, which in her case seemed to work to ease the pain.
My sax player had all four removed. No practice for two weeks.
My brass instrumentalist started having one wisdom tooth coming out at age 15…Then, just before a 1-month summer program that include oversea tour last year (before entering 12th grade), one of his wisdom teeth started bothering badly regularly. We couldn’t squeeze a procedure in his schedule right away so we needed to be on stand-by until his all college audition schedules and performance events got scheduled in this academic year. He had all four extractions on one day (it took less than one hour to remove all four) at age 16 after Christmas, but before New Year, way before winter break ended. His school band director added one important performance event that made him to perform (with solos) on the 10th day after extraction. It got worsen so he took another 1+ week to rest without playing. So, it took about 2-1/2 weeks total, then he needed to get used to with playing back again before audition week started. So, rest 100% for 2 weeks minimum, better to think about almost 3 weeks if it’s possible. Most music teachers / directors know about issues so they would understand. Good luck on scheduling.
Oops…My son had wisdom tooth extractions at age 17…
I usually suggest taking all 4 at once if one needs to come out now. If your child has a bad experience, you will have a hard time getting him/her to schedule the others. Best to be one visit, and done.
In terms of recovery it is very difficult to say: each kid has teeth in different positions (some fully impacted, some partial, some erupted). Some heal very quickly, some not so fast. And everything in between.
D is a brass player. One of her wisdom teeth got infected summer after freshman year. The oral surgeon recommended extracting all four impacted teeth ASAP. She emailed her professor and he also told her to do it ASAP to maximize healing time before returning to school. She had all four extracted the next week. She healed quickly, but still did not play for 2-3 weeks. Her professor gave her an exercise regimen to then use as she returned to practicing.
When my vocalist had hers removed our Dentist was super clear that she’d need 2 weeks totally off from singing…(because of so many vibrations and so much pressure from singing). I imagine a wind or brass player would need the same for a safe recovery. You DO NOT want to dislodge a clot and get dry socket!