Statement of problem

As players of single-reed wind instruments such as the clarinet and saxophone are likely to experience pain and trauma of the lower lip, a method to prevent these symptoms without disturbing the music quality and performance is required.

Purpose

The purpose of this clinical study was to produce a custom music splint, an oral appliance for the players of single-reed wind instruments, by using sports mouthguard sheet materials and to determine its suppression effect on the pressure and pain of the lower lip and teeth and on fatigue and pain of the jaw.

Material and methods

The soft type and soft and hard 2-layer type of sheet materials for sports mouthguards were used to fabricate the music splints. Each type of material has 1-mm and 2-mm thicknesses; therefore, 4 kinds of music splint were produced. The participants, students who played wind instruments in university orchestras, were instructed to use each music splint when playing the instruments for 1 week (for at least 3 hours for each music splint) and to answer a questionnaire about the effect of each appliance. Eighteen participants answered the questionnaire. Based on the usual usage of oral appliances when playing instruments, the participants were classified into 2 groups; oral appliance typically used (group OA) (n=7) and oral appliance not used (group noOA) (n=11). To determine the effects of the 4 types of music splint, a multilevel linear regression analysis was applied to evaluate the nested structure of the data (α=.05).

Results

The use of the music splint significantly relieved pressure and pain on the lower lips. The soft type was more effective in group OA, and the thin type was more effective in group noOA. The thin- and soft-type music splints were associated with significantly better playing sensation and sound quality than other types of splint in both groups.

Conclusions

The thin- and soft-type music splints can be effective and useful for suppressing oral symptoms when playing a single-reed wind instrument without disturbing the quality of the performance.

中文翻译：

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管乐器演奏者用音乐夹板的最佳硬度和厚度评估

问题陈述

由于单簧管和萨克斯管等单簧管乐器的演奏者可能会感到下唇疼痛和外伤，因此需要一种在不影响音乐质量和演奏的情况下预防这些症状的方法。

目的

本临床研究的目的是使用运动护齿板材料制作定制音乐夹板，这是一种专为单簧管乐器演奏者设计的口腔器具，并确定其对下唇和牙齿压力和疼痛的抑制效果以及下巴的疲劳和疼痛。

材料与方法

音乐夹板采用柔软型和软硬两层型运动护齿片材制作。每种材料都有 1 毫米和 2 毫米的厚度；因此，制作了4种音乐夹板。参与者是在大学管弦乐队演奏管乐器的学生，他们被指示在演奏乐器时使用每个音乐夹板 1 周（每个音乐夹板至少 3 小时），并回答有关每个器具效果的问卷。十八名参与者回答了问卷。根据演奏乐器时口腔器具的常用用法，将参与者分为 2 组；通常使用口腔矫治器（OA 组）（n=7）和不使用口腔矫治器（noOA 组）（n=11）。为了确定4种音乐夹板的效果，

结果

音乐夹板的使用显着减轻了下唇的压力和疼痛。柔软型对OA组更有效，薄型对noOA组更有效。在两组中，薄型和软型音乐夹板与其他类型的夹板相比具有明显更好的演奏感觉和音质。

结论

轻薄型音乐夹板在演奏单簧管乐器时可有效抑制口腔症状，且不影响演奏质量。