We Are Not Machines...

Also a reminder that as musicians we are not machines either. Don't let anyone make you feel like you should force perfection, or care more about absolute perfection than the overarching goal of making music and creating beautiful music.

It is largely an unconsciously controlled act (especially movement)...so don't interfere or let others interfere with what doesn't need fixed or focused on.

The act of playing is context-dependent and our actions are guided by audiation, and the environment acts as a constraint to guide movement and learning, so that is really where the focus should be....on the blueprint sound/direction in our head...knowing exactly what it is we want to convey (in an overarching picture type of way).

It is really dangerous when interfered with under the wrong situation or person, so trust your intuition and gut feeling if you feel certain things (i.e. way of doing things, way of thinking, to much focus or imbalance on mechanics or technique) or someone (even a highly respected teacher) is only making things worse in the long-run for you.

Horn Section Gathering

Some of my section mates invited me over for an evening of reading music and socializing. This was the first time in 12 years I played these once familiar pieces.

It takes courage to play in an orchestra again while trying to manage embouchure dystonia. It takes even more to play in a chamber setting which is more exposed. Thank God I am part of a supportive section...it means the world to me.

It's both physically and mentally taxing on a whole different level. Takes enormous effort sometimes to adapt and make adjustments on the fly. It's like trying to jump hurdles on one leg (non-dominant side) over and over again. Sometimes you know there's no way of avoiding falling flat on your face and just have to get up and keep going and reward yourself for the small victories/hurdles you did miraculously jump over.

I do my best on 4th as it is easier to manage and I actually get to enjoy the feeling of playing rather than constantly having to manually adjust my settings every other beat (literally...it's like trying to learn to drive stick-shift for the first time while in a professional race car competition...there is no such thing as solely focusing on the road or automatic pilot...you're learning as you are going at full speed and it's ever changing).

We're planning on doing some summer gigs together which I'm looking forward to! I just feel lucky to do this and forever grateful!!

I am proud to say I got through 3 hours of solid playing. Even though my endurance is shot, my dystonia symptoms were consist; meaning they didn't get worse or severely degrade my abilities as I continued playing, which is characteristic. It's kind of like a snowball effect or quicksand where the dystonia just takes over if you continue playing.

Luckily it's been manageable due to the consistency/stabilizing of the symptoms. I think that is why I feel more comfortable saying yes to playing more publicly now, since my dystonia isn't as sporadic, unpredictable, and way out of control as it was in the past. It's become more predictable, consistent, and controllable to a degree and that's leagues better than having no leverage at all.

I thank God every day and celebrate the small things, such as just being able to get a note out of the horn...not many who experience onset of this disorder can hold a note longer than half a second before either: their aperture involuntary closes, their jaw locks, fierce spasms throw them off the note, a tick causes an air leak, or the seal breaks due to the embouchure collapsing, or they can't even touch the mouthpiece because their contractions are so severe.

You have to be grateful for the small progress despite the ebb and flow of it all...it's difficult to see results, but it's doable.

10 Years Ago...

Exactly 10 years ago today I played my last recital/solo horn rep. I still love the horn just as much, if not more. I still have all my manuscripts/music library even though I almost threw it all away out of anger and frustration 1 year after the Focal Embouchure Dystonia diagnosis. Just couldn't get rid of it in the end. Meant too much to me.

📯💔📯💔📯💔
#nevergiveup #chinup #staystrong #havefaith
#livingwithembouchuredystonia

Chiropractic Work on Neck Begins!

Day 2 of chiropractic work on my back, upper body - shoulders, neck, jaw! Feeling a ton of relief and tension reduced. 20 more sessions to go.

I know a lot of musicians with dystonia say chiropractic help doesn't work. But for me it is important since I've always carried a lot of tension and problems in my neck. I can't tell you how many times people, especially teachers, would tell me to let my shoulders down and I would reply, "I can't. It's not like I'm forcing them into this position. They are bulky and stuck this way. It takes an absurd amount of work to unwind them. It's also the whole upper body that's this way....it doesn't derive in the shoulders."

When I was 15 my neck muscles were so tight that I couldn't move my head/face to the right. My mother who was a nurse practitioner took me to a neurologist because she thought maybe it was something worse because massage and relaxants didn't help. The neurologist said it was too early to tell if I had cervical dystonia, but most likely not the case as it is rare to onset at my age and I didn't really have more of the symptoms associated with it besides lack of range of motion and zingers attacking the back side of my neck/head. The DYT1 gene also did not show up in my blood work, and he said I would have known in early childhood if this is what I had.

Nonetheless they wanted to play it safe and gave me 10 large needles of botox injections around the base of my neck and 2 months of deep tissue massage/trigger point and it went away.

However, the tension in my neck has always been there. I saw a chiropractor briefly in my mid-20's after I was diagnosed with embouchure dystonia, but only because I threw my back out. The only work they did was on my lower back and hips. However, I never thought of using chiropractic work as a means to help with the tension in my neck and upper body.

That is why I've decided to try it now. Especially after I was informed that it is part of what is getting in the way of my recovery. I know a lot of people don't believe in psychics, but I was told by a medical intuitive that the tension in my neck and upper body has always been due to my spine. That it needs a lot of adjusments around my neck to fix it because it's never been addressed. He said it's been limiting me from recovering from the rest of my embouchure dystonia, that it was blocking my jaw movement, including nerves, and contributing to my lack of sensory feedback. This along with continuing my current rehabilitation strategies should show results.

As you know, I already work hard on relieving tension in my upper body through upper back stretches, shoulder, neck, tongue, and facial stretches. My primary form of rehabilitation has been (deprogramming and rebuilding) relieving tension and then finding a window of opportunity to get leverage and work on rebuilding a new neuropathway in that area that feels most natural, along with everything else - modifications, adaptations, etc. The reliving of the tension has contributed to a lot of my recovery, so I'm hoping the chiropractic work will as well.

Right away the chiropractor told me I need a lot of work on my neck and shoulders. He could tell it was pulling on the right side of my face.

Wish me luck!! I wish you could feel how much relief I feel in my shoulders and neck currently. It's surprising how much additional tension is lingering in there

Looking at Overactive Muscle Groups in Embouchure

Before I go on break, I just wanted to share a bit of my playing. Mainly to show an example of which muscles are currently overactive (receiving overactive signals), which ones are lacking feedback/loss of sensory - mainly paralysis in the lower lip (left side) and the entire left side of face, and air leaks.

Sorry it's quite dark and difficult to see at times. It's very easy to see which muscles closest to the surface of the face are overactive while playing; especially the zygomaticus minor, zygomaticus major (runs from the upper lip into the apples of the cheeks); levator anguli oris (runs from the corners up along the sides of the nose), and depressor anguli oris (in the chin).

I'm also currently playing while tonguing, which is very difficult to do, but so proud I can do that now!!!! For the longest time I could only do air attacks/air puffs, and later alternate them. Finally able to add in tonguing more consistently without everything going haywire.

I'm playing with my mute in, on my phone, so not the best sound quality, but it captures how many air leaks there are if you listen closely.

You'll hear me use a couple of nose breaths in my pivot areas when I slur near the end. This is to help remind my muscles to not overshoot or become overactive as transitioning briefly. Sometimes I can tell if a normal breath will cause instability, and therefore take a nose breath instead. The same goes with tonguing; I can tell if it will cause instability and therefore will use a air attack instead or alternate.

My primary obstacles right now are air leaks in the low-to-pedal register, lack of sensation and control in the lower lip on the left side (limp/paralysis), and in the high register there are air leaks in the upper lip right side.

This is also the first time in years I've been able to play more aggressively or louder because I can grasp notes better when landing (landing on middle C and B is still the hardest), which I try to show in the octave jumps; demonstrating how I can dig into the notes more and not fall off.

I play a scale passage in the middle range and then play it in the low range to show the difference in the various movements going on in my face. You can see the most amount of overactivity happens when I go into my lower register and pedal register. Also in descending scale runs which are more difficult than ascending. Near the end I slow things down gradually to show you how the speed affects the symptoms too.

The entire right side of my face is stable. It compensates a lot for the lack of control and sensory on the left. It looks like it's the right side that is moving a lot and out of control, but it is actually the left side that is affected the most by dystonia.

Though it looks like a lot of facial movement overall (if it's your first time seeing dystonia symptoms).....this is actually very mild or light; usually there would be more sporadic movement going on, lateral pulls, tremors, spasms, abrupt stops in sound, and more noticeable unevenness between both sides of the face.

It also might look like it hurts, but embouchure dystonia is not painful despite how crazy things look at times. I feel it is significantly easier to play now, but the air leaks are currently the most frustrating thing occurring.

However, this is a good sign and I feel like it is a result of my sensation/feedback returning; I feel my muscles regaining more grasp overall; I can feel where I need to loosen up or grasp more. I don't know if that makes sense?

Better that it's air leaks than full-blown spasms, tremors, and involuntary aperture closing (abrupt stopping of the sound).

I've stated before that the symptoms have gone away in reverse order of onset. Air leaks and the lower lip escaping were near the beginning of onset before things got substantially worse near the height of the neurological disorder.

If you are struggling to believe you can play again, please know I had the most severe symptoms in the beginning and couldn't even get a sound out of my horn and it carried over to my ability to drink, smile, and at times - talk. Although it's been 9 years since I was diagnosed, there was a span of 4 years where I didn't play much or work solely on rehabilitating due to graduate school and teaching obligations. So about 4-5 years of solid rehabilitation, focus, and documenting to get to this point.

Hope this shows a little bit of how Embouchure Dystonia impacts my playing currently. This is actually not the best I've played or can play, but still wanted to record for this month. Will post some videos of actual pieces (2 concertos) when I return. Excited about that! :-)

Thank you for being supportive and understanding! Please remember I am going out on a limb and showing a vulnerable process/state. I wouldn't say it takes bravery, but more like patience made of iron when dealing with any inconsiderate comments that come with the choice of showing embouchure dystonia publicly sometimes.

Finally, I just want to say if you have Embouchure Dystonia, please remember you understand your body, signals/feedback, sensations, and what does or doesn't work better than anyone else ever will.

Recovery is Not Linear...

Pedagogy Master

Attended a wonderful and illuminating lecture, performance, and master class at CU-Boulder last night by Principal Horn of the Houston Symphony/Rice University Professor, William VerMeulen.

He is known as an exceptional pedagogue (if not the best), and has a substantial amount of students that play professionally.

It was enlightening hearing him speak about his unorthodox teaching methods, as it confirmed my feelings about the need for change in traditional teaching practices and how it ties into performance-related injuries.

His teaching is superb and it is such a huge relief to witness. Reminds me a lot of Dr.Tritle actually!! It is refreshing seeing his concepts have resulted in well-rounded, healthy, and highly successful students. This style of teaching and concepts are direly needed in the horn playing world.

If he could just rewrite the horn Bible now, I can die happy!

The Phoenix Project: Rise from the Ashes by Ashley Gulbranson (French Horn)

This amazing recital in March was hosted by French horn player Ashley Gulbranson at the University of Colorado Boulder. I really wanted to attend it in person because I travel to Boulder for perforamances almost every year, since it's not that far away.

This recital in particular was significant! It features new works created for musicians recovering from Focal Dystonia. The first compositions of this kind to exist!! I did however get to watch the live stream which I posted below.

Though I don't know anyone from the project directly since it's been years since I was a student at CU-Boulder, I can't explain how exciting and heart warming this initiative is. Having this disorder is a difficult, unnerving, and solitary journey at times, even if you know others who can relate.

I know a lot of blood, sweat, and tears probably went into this substantial DMA work. Please have a listen, especially if you are a horn player with embouchure dystonia.

Link to the video recording of the recital:

https://www.facebook.com/ashley.gulbranson/videos/10156558376583705/UzpfSTEwMDAyOTAyNzk0NzM4NDoxODI0Njc0NzYwNjQxODM/

The Core of Me...

Pathways: A French Horn Podcast by Adam Wolf

http://pathways.libsyn.com/

If you haven't already listened to or come across this amazing and top of the line podcast, you should!!! I think all brass players/instrumentalists can benefit from the interviews with professional horn players where they share details of their life and anything you can imagine.

What I love most about this podcast is that the interviews go into depth and things are really discussed intellectually, while having a sense of humor. There is no stone left unturned. It's all-in-all an amazing job done by Adam Wolf. I hope you enjoy these as much as I do. No other podcast out there better than this on horn playing. Cheers!!

The MRI Brass Repository Project March 2019

https://www.gordon.edu/mrihorn

Please donate this month!!! I spoke with Dr. Iltis last year via skype/phone about the project and we had a long conversation over our experiences. It was one of the best conversations I've had over embouchure dystonia. I really wished to participate, however, the deadline had passed, and neither they or I could afford the flight costs from U.S. to Germany, housing and food.

I'm happy to see they've been granted more time!!! I'm hoping they'll receive the funding needed, as there is not enough research being done on embouchure dystonia in general and I would love to see them get as many scans as possible on this rare piece of equipment.

They are using one of the fastest imaging scanners that exist. It can provide more insight as to what is going on inside while we play; not only in the brain, but physically. It is very high definition. They are comparing the imaging scans from the professional brass players without dystonia to the group of brass players with embouchure dystonia. They are also gaining more insight into how playing varies form individual-to-individual anatomically within. This can help educators and musicians begin to really understand further details as to what is involved in the function of physical performance.

I'm rooting them on and so very supportive of this research!!!

Thank You....

When someone references or sends me a link to my own blog and doesn't know I wrote it......never fails to catch me totally off guard. Thank you. It's equally flattering and embarrassing for me! Haha...oh Lord.
😱😵😳💓 

Small Steps Add Up...

Prevention Revisisted

I've been going back and editing some of my past blog posts. Here's the most recent one I've been working on, "Is Focal Embouchure Dystonia Prevention Possible?"

Embouchure Dystonia: Beginning Physical Rehabilitation Strategies for Brass Players II

(Part 2)

Apologies for how spaced out I sound at times. I work overnights and made this video in the middle of the day, so I was really exhausted! I might go back and remake it, but I hope the video provides some insight into what I do.

You can find part 1 here: https://focalembouchuredystonia.blogspot.com/2018/12/embouchure-dystonia-beginning-physical.html

I'll add more as I go along. :-) Thanks for watching. - Katie

Return to Orchestral Playing

Hi everyone! In case you didn't know, I took a huge leap and started playing in a local orchestra again this past November. It's a community orchestra, so nothing too crazy or strenuous on my face. I'm hoping it will allow me to take my time re-introducing myself to playing more on a consistent basis.

It definitely has been helping a lot! Granted I never could have handled this years ago, and I would never recommend playing in a group during the onset or height of dystonia. However, I find it majorly beneficial at this stage of recovery.

There was a time when I realized I had to get back into the swing of things, instead of just taking small gigs or subbing. However, it can seem like a journey in itself trying to find the right environment that supports you and willing to take an injured musician in. Most of the time I have to mention it afterwards and hope for the best, and if not, then it's not where I want or need to be in the first place.

The last big orchestra gig I did was in 2017 for the Longmont Symphony, which is an advanced and professional sounding orchestra. Therefore it was nerve-wracking at first, but oh boy, did I have sooooo much fun just being surrounded by players of that caliber and feeling alive again. I played 4th horn on Pines of Rome, Daphnis and Chloe, Strauss 4 Last Songs, and Elgar Variations.

However, my very first time playing in a group since 2010/diagnosis was while subbing for a horn player in a unique jazz-orchestra ensemble called All Angles Orchestra, created by a former classmate of mine (Michael Conrad) who happened to be the doctoral teaching assistant of jazz at UNC (Colorado) at the time. He's now a professor and won several awards for his compositions. I didn't expect him to reach out to me because it had been so long (we attended undergrad together in Iowa) and also because of my setback, but I was so happy he did. It really pushed me to take that first leap of faith.

It can be a bit scary every time you take a gig, or even just playing alongside others at first. It can also be physically taxing committing to a group on a weekly basis if you're not sure you are ready or playing more makes your symptoms worse. It really depends.

However, I think if you are optimistic and know your limitations very well of what you can handle or not, everything can be manageable. The relapse days can be brutal sometimes, but they don't happen as often anymore, and very rarely are they so severe that I become concerned.

I still get to play some decent repertoire; we had our christmas concert in December, and now started opera season and some other great pieces. I'm playing 2nd (but currently covering 4th this month) on the Firebird Suite, which is always fun to revisit on a different part, and playing a couple light pieces like La Gazza Ladra. I've always been a lead/principal player most of my life, and ever since the height of my dystonia back in 2010, I have been on 4th horn whenever I play in a group. That's not to say it's a bad thing, but it has taught me a lot and helped me also separate that ego from needing to be the best. All-in-all it has been an ongoing lesson.

I look forward to orchestra rehearsals every weekend! I LOVE it, very much. I forget how therapeutic it is and how much I need to be a part of a music group. Before I was either playing via demonstrating for students or having to play with them due to teaching. It's not the same as making music in an actual ensemble. Therefore, I never felt fulfilled to a certain degree.

I actually ran into a former CU-Boulder classmate who is a trumpet player, and also a bassoon player who use to volunteer to help out at concerts at the school I use to teach at for El Sistema. The conductor of this orchestra has a great sense of humor and I can tell it's a healthy environment.

I just recently watched a video where Dr. Farias discusses how one of the key components during the recovery process from any type of dystonia is re-introducing yourself to a former social environment or activity you use to do. It will greatly improve your wellbeing and facilitates the progress more than you would imagine.

I know that a lot of musician's with embouchure dystonia are not able to take this step for many reasons, or it can be just the mere fact that dystonia makes things so unpredictable and unstable at times.

Overall I am really proud of where I'm at and just taking my time trying to regain the last portion of my abilities. I feel as though I have about 70% of my abilities back, and on relapse days 60%. I know that's a weird figure...but I don't know how else to explain it.

I know a lot of people think, believe, or will tell you that embouchure dystonia is an absolute end to your dreams and career. The truth is that if you believe that B.S., it will do you nothing but harm and may even stop you from recovering at all.

Believing in a 100% recovery is half the battle. I seriously will not give up, even if I die trying. Even if I'm 90 years old and lost all my teeth...I'm not the quitting type, and the more the odds are stacked against me, the more fuel to my fire and determination to prove those out there wrong.

Anyways, I just wanted to share this moment in my life. It may seem like a small step, but small steps add up over time. I hope that it provides hope to others who may be afraid that they won't ever play among other musicians again, or even enjoy it.

That's all for now, have a wonderful day, and never give up on your recovery efforts! :-)

Participation in Another Research Study - University of York - England

Yesterday I had the immense pleasure of participating in an interview with Anna Detari as part of her ongoing Ph.D research on Musician's Focal Dystonia. It was an honor to finally meet her. Once again, I am ecstatic to participate in any research being conducted and so glad she contacted me.

It is a blessing meeting someone who shares the same passion for helping others. It was relieving sharing my history of playing. We both developed embouchure dystonia around the same time. It's actually been years since I fully discussed my past with anyone...meaning all the possible details before onset, during, and after, so it was quite relieving looking into the past.

Thank you Anna for your passion, experience, and efforts put forth in conducting further research on the disorder at the University of York in England! You are doing amazing work.

I've posted Anna's website on the side bar under the Musician's With Dystonia section, so please check that out and contact her if you have musician's dystonia and would be interested in participating in any future or current research. You can also read more about her if you click on her name above.

Quick Video Post: Testing my Symptoms Across Registers

The other day I wanted to see how my large interval jumps were doing. So I started to play a little bit of the Till Eulenspiegel excerpt. Here I used a practice mute, which I often couldn't manage easily in the past from about 2010-2013.

This snippet of playing was used as a means to briefly test my symptoms, feel things out, and observe what signals my brain/body was sending me before I dived into really focusing on them.

It is not to show musicality, rhythmic accuracy, pitch accuracy, polished playing, or my skill level whatsoever. You can see my lower lip has paralysis going on in the left side and more viewable as I descend. It makes things quite taxing.

Though, I can't explain how happy I am to manage jumping across registers and play downward arpeggios spanning two registers, hit some high notes and low notes within a short consecutive time-frame. It takes a long time to regain those abilities even at a minimal/very basic level.

With embouchure dystonia, grabbing onto notes, maneuver them as they fly by, holding them out, or even landing on them is one of the biggest challenges due to the lack of sensation/sensory.

I've been able to regain the grasp on notes over time thanks to years of rehabilitation work. My main setback right now is air-leaks and landing on lower notes descending due to the lower lip protruding outwards on the left or because it is having troubles moving in general. You wouldn't believe me if I told you it actually use to be a lot worse. It's like trying to run a three-legged race and the other person isn't moving, so you're just dragging them along. haha! :-)

I'm also using a combination of air and tongue attacks. Tonguing is a whole different area on it's own, so won't go into detail there. It's task-specific, so the ability to do it depends on the register I'm playing in, if it is descending or ascending, the tempo, and if it is smaller or larger interval movement.

I will say however, I've noticed over the years that the receding of symptoms or regaining of control has happened in the reverse order of the onset and progression of symptoms. So my current state is a good place to be in.

<3 Until next time...thanks for stopping by! :-)

Participation in a Research Study on Embouchure Dystonia - University of Washington - St. Louis

I don't know why I forgot to post this ages ago! I was flown out to St. Louis on January 3rd, 2018 to participate in a research study on embouchure dystonia conducted at the University of Washington St. Louis, by Aimee Morris and neurologist Dr. Joel Perlmutter.

The Dystonia Coalition team also happened to be there conducting research, so they took blood samples and videos of my playing to archive!

While in St. Louis, I was happy to visit my friend/mentor/horn player Thomas Jostlein who is the associate Principal Horn of the St. Louis Symphony, and speak with another horn player about the subject of embouchure dystonia.

Even though it wasn't a vacation, I really enjoyed the time away from Denver. I really needed the trip away. The photo above is a view from the hotel room. I spent most of the night sitting next to the window, eating an awesome dinner, looking out at the scene of the arch with all the city lights. I listened a podcast interviewing Marty Hackleman who discusses near the end of the interview his recent diagnosis of embouchure dystonia. I also started reading a hefty pile of  books (photo below) I checked out from the library before I left Denver.

I can't tell you how relieving it was to talk to Dr. Perlmutter and ask him all kinds of questions I had, such as why Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) surgery isn't allowed on musician's with embouchure dystonia in particular in the United States, when it is quickly gaining a reputation for curing musician's with hand dystonia...or even the use of Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (TMS). Forgive me for not explaining the jargon well or things more thoroughly, as it is sometimes all greek to me as well. He was explaining to me how the brain registers musician's dystonia in both hemispheres and why it is not as easy to target the exact location during surgery as it is when conducting surgery for Essential Tremors which can be pinpointed. It's another reason why the experimental surgery on musicians is not approved in the United States. Most of the research using DBS and/or TMS is being conducted on more life-threatening forms of neurological disorders.

It was relieving to also work with Aimee Morris as she is also a french horn player who has experienced a physical setback in the past; Bell's Palsy. She is passionate about her research, and did a fantastic job of organizing everything from booking my flight, hotel, transportation, itinerary, and meals. Dr. Perlmutter performed neurological tests, and Aimee did the fMRI imaging on my brain, and conducted the playing tests/recordings, and the questionnaire.

Here is an image of my brain I was able to take home with me. Sorry for the blurriness, as I took a picture of it from my phone. It's not often you get to see images of your own brain up close.

It was a whirlwind day of tests, blood samples, questions, playing, recording, trying to not fall asleep in the fMRI machine for an hour, and video taping, that I can't remember all the details, nor do I understand exactly how all of this was measured even though the research article explains it below.

I just know I was ecstatic to be contributing to the research as a patient, and so proud and happy to see more neurologists within the United States becoming interested in contributing to the research being done on not only musician's dystonia, but in particular embouchure dystonia, which we don't have as much research on as hand dystonia.

Thomas was also interested in contributing, so he participated as a non-dystonic horn player to the study later on. Which moved me and made me really happy hearing he did that!

Anyways! Here is the link to the research publication on NCBI. You will need a subscription to read it. I wish I could give a huge thank you to Aimee, Dr. Perlmutter and the rest of the research team. I know I'm not the only musician involved, but it meant a lot to finally participate. It makes me feel like I did something important to help further the efforts and information on the disorder somehow.

Quantitative, Clinically Relevant Acoustic Measurements of Focal Embouchure Dystonia - Morris, A.E; Norris, S.A.; Perlmutter, J.S.; Mink, JW

Although the photos below are unrelated, I wanted to add them here, since...why not!....there's already a photo of my brain above. Why not throw in a couple x-ray shots of my face since we're getting up close and personal. These are from my neuro-dentistry exams conducted in late 2014. Again, not the greatest quality because I took them on my phone.

Dental Hygiene

When your dental hygiene care is almost obsessive. A water flosser, dental kit, electric toothbrush, and tongue forcep. The only two things missing in the photo is castor oil for oil-pulling, and a mouth guard.

I was never this attentive when younger as I thought I was doing enough already because I rarely had any dental issues in my life.

After I was diagnosed with Embouchure Dystonia I started to care a lot more about everything concerning my face, mouth, upper body, and health in general just out of pure frustration....not that it would change anything regarding my dystonia.

I started going the extra mile. I figured it could only help me in the long-run with overall health, and prevent any other possible future issues.

After studying all the things that could damage your teeth, glands, mouth, and jaw....no wonder I am a bit paranoid. Haha! :-)