How Dental Procedures Affect Singers

I had a tooth extraction 6 days ago and here’s how it affected my neck, jaw and voice and what I did about them.

My neck was very cranky for the first 3 days and then it started slowly easing. I don’t usually get a sore neck from the dentist but I can think of 3 good reasons why it happened this time

First, I was uncharacteristically nervous before the appointment so I was tense already.

Second, the procedure itself was intense. The tooth that had to come out was my second last molar on the right. It was my root canal tooth. The root canal was too old and had started leaking. It was causing me problems and it had to come out.

So there was a lot of jiggling to remove the tooth and then my dentist had to scrape the bone real good to make sure the socket was clean. So that was a lot of unaccustomed stress on my neck and jaw.

Thirdly, and I’ve been grumbling about this for years now, there is zero neck support on a dentist’s chair and we have to sit there with our neck extended, mouth open for quite some time while dentists do things in your mouth and that is a weird position to be in.

When you put together feeling anxious, being in a weird position with unaccustomed stress on our neck and jaw, of course your nervous system is going to go “hmmm, I’m not sure about that” and your neck muscles do exactly what they would in this situation. They guard.

To help relieve my neck pain, I did a range of movement exercises. I stretched my muscles out regularly. My sternocleidomastoid was especially cranky so I did my supercharged SCM stretch which you can check out here. I massaged my neck and shoulders and also used a hot pack.

My neck is still a bit uncomfortable but I know it’s going to settle down in a few more days.

My jaw was very sore for a few days as well. Just like my neck, it didn’t like the weird position and unaccustomed stress. I was told to not talk for the rest of that day and I also didn’t feel much like talking to few next days.

So the lack of movement plus the swelling made it stiff and achy. Not to mention I can’t chew on my right side now. When you chew on the left, it loads up the right jaw joint so things have been pretty tough for my jaw.

Normally, when my jaw is tight, I would mobilise my jaw joint myself but of course I can’t do that right now with an open wound in there. I still have two stitches that need to come out. You can learn more about the do’s and don’ts of intra-oral work in this video.

What I did instead was some gentle massage over my temporalis muscle. I gently massaged over the condyle and also along my cheekbones. I left the area over my masseter alone because the wound is right underneath. I did some easy opening and side-to-side range of movement exercises. Then I used warm water to stretch out my jaw.

To do that, I hold a mouthful of water over to the right side of my mouth, tip my head to the right so gravity helps keep the water there and then let the volume of the ball of water and the warmth stretch it out. Then I drink my water and I repeat that a few times.

My larynx, especially my suprahyoid muscles was also a bit tight from holding my mouth open in that weird position. So I did my multi-part larynx stretch and that has been very helpful.

What I am most surprised about is that my tongue has been feeling very free since the tooth came out. I often have a bit of tongue root tension but it has been fe eling great. It actually feels a little bit too loose. I never realised how much your teeth support your tongue and how much your teeth help with articulation.

I am not used to this kind of freedom just yet. I think my brain and body need to do some recalibration so speaking feels a little bit weird right now.

It is just day 6 today and I am definitely not feeling my usual self with my speech and I haven’t really felt like singing either. It will take time to adjust to this so I would say that if you have an important presentation or performance, you definitely want to have a minimum of 2 weeks between a tooth extraction or other major dental procedure and your big engagement.

Going to the dentist can be stressful and a lot of people do get a sore neck afterwards. I used to have a patient who always booked an appointment with me to have neck treatment straight after her dental appointment. I always thought that was a boss move so you could be a boss like her too.

Or maybe if we all start to take neck cushions to our dental appointments, dentists will finally get the message and not just giggle when the physio make the suggestions for neck support and make it a better experience for everybody.

I am Selina, a physio and a singer currently missing one tooth. I help singers build strong bodies to enhance their vocal efficiency and performance. If that is your vibe, please subscribe. This is a playlist I have made just for singers so make sure you check it out.

’Til next time, Be Free In Your Movement.™