HBM – Lip Problems

Pimples and surface sores – if you can ignore the pain, you can play well

Herpes viruses cause canker sores and fever blisters

The virus is in the body forever; symptoms manifest when immune system is weakened due to stress, poor life style, etc.  A health immune system prevents problems

Prevention:  take better care of yourself, reduce stress; can take vitamin B, L-Iysine (in vitamin B) – available at Wal-Mart in herbal supplements

Fever blisters – Colgate Peroxyl, ginger root tea, ether (no longer for sale), Orajel,\Mouthaid

Chapped lips – don’t lick your lips in cold weather; roll red of lips in so it doesn’t show

Good:  Chapstick, Pucker Ups, Chop Saver

Bad:  Daily Conditioning Treatment, Blistex, Carmex (contains camphor)

Bruised lips – caused by too much pressure for too long

Lips hurt, are tender, sometimes have bluish color – can take days, weeks months to heal

Prevention is best

Ice treatment:  ice lips down ASAP after pressing too hard to prevent swelling;

     NEVER put ice directly on lips; cold water fountain works great – run cold water

     over the lips until they feel numb; repeat throughout the day until the swelling is gone

AFTER the swelling is gone, you can apply heat to increase the healing; if the swelling is not gone, heat only increases the swelling

Gentle playing can help healing, but mezzo everything – medium loud, medium high, medium long, with lots of rest

Split inside lip can happen after using too much pressure and sleeping with mouth open; can be quite painful, but you can play well if you ignore the pain

Tired chaps – overworked – best to skip a day, if possible, or very easy warm ups Maurice Andre skipped a day after heavy piccolo trumpet recording sessions

Chops forecast illness – about 3 days lead time; you think, “I haven’t been practicing a lot more than usual, I have been practicing enough, I wonder what’s wrong…” and you get sick.

Prevention:  when this happens, take care of yourself immediately; sometimes you can head off the illness Tired body causes tired chops, tired brain; not much you can do except try to play well; better yet, get some rest!