My boyfriend hates his teeth.
He’s never had braces, and his two front teeth are angled towards the back of his mouth. He hates to smile because of his “ugly teeth.” You can’t even tell his teeth are crooked unless you already know, but he doesn’t believe that. He looks in the mirror and just sees crooked teeth where everyone else sees an absolutely beautiful smile.
He’s a trumpet player. Actually, he’s a prodigy on the trumpet. He doesn’t give himself enough credit, and he never really tried hard, but he’s absolutely amazing. Just to give you an idea of how insane he is, he sightread the audition pieces for all sorts of youth symphonies and other things that are almost impossible to get into, and he got into all of them.
We’re in college now and he hardly plays anymore, and he’s much more concerned about his looks at the moment than he is with his music… I know having ‘perfect’ teeth would give him an enormous boost of confidence. I want him to be confident. I want him to see what I see in him!!! That’s why I’d like to get him braces some day. He thinks he’s ugly, and the fact that he thinks he has an ugly smile doesn’t help with his self-esteem. Maybe, when I graduate and get a job and have a comfortable income, I can pay for his braces, and then he’ll stop staring at his teeth and see how perfect and handsome he really is. That’s what I’m aiming for, anyway. He doesn’t know that, of course. But I know he’d love this idea, because he’d do just about anything to “look better.”
But he’s got such talent, and I know getting braces would affect his embouchure drastically. He’s learned to play the trumpet with his angled teeth; he’d have to learn to play all over again. Hopefully one day he’ll realize that his gift is incredible and that looks don’t matter. But that realization isn’t going to come to him any time soon. I’ve tried so hard to convince him that he’s perfect just the way he is, but he doesn’t believe anything I say (he thinks I’m too biased by my love for him to pass judgment), and he gets so depressed about his looks… I’m just afraid that getting braces will affect his playing, and that one day he’ll miss his music and see that his teeth did their job wonderfully, but it’ll be too late and all that easy playing will be just a thing of the past.
Does anyone have any experience with the effects of braces on trumpet playing?
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