Two weeks ago from today I had all four of my wisdom teeth removed. To say that this procedure was painful would be an understatement. I was placed under general anesthesia, needed a friend to take me home, and slept for about two days. As you might guess I had to take some time off of the horn. It took exactly one week for me to play again.

During the week that I took off I did lip exercises twice a day. The exercises are from a sheet of paper that was given to me by a past teacher of mine, Herbert Winslow. The sheet is labeled “Embouchure Exercises for Brass Players” with no author. Without going into too much detail the sheet lists positions to hold for 15 seconds four times each: 1. Super Smiley, 2. Super Small Aperture, 3. Toothless Old Man, 4. Super Kissy Face. I also did daily deep breathing exercises from Douglas Hill’s “Warm-up and Maintenance Sessions.” While laying in bed I made sure to listen to a few good horn solo CDs everyday, so that I could keep the sound of good playing in my head. All of these exercises/activities made my retransition to playing again much smoother than it could have been. One week after the surgery I played a few notes for 15 minutes before things became painful. On my second and third days back I played a 45 minute warm-up session. For the next few days after that I played two hours a day. Finally, six days after returning, I played three separate sessions totaling 3.5 hours. Now, two weeks after the surgery, I feel that I’m almost back to the level I was at before. My endurance and high range is still suffering a little bit, however, I’m optimistic that these issues will be resolved in the next few days.

For anyone contemplating wisdom tooth surgery I recommend that you do it sooner than later. Also, make sure that when you return to the horn you take it slow. It will be painful at first, however, things will get better quickly.