Soprano has braces… Career roulette or no-big-deal?

Should a professional singer consider orthodontics?

What if it affects your voice? Shouldn’t singers be really careful, messing with their mouths?

It’s a ticklish subject. The thought of any permanent change in your mouth can be daunting, but especially if it might affect your livelihood or passion. So, is it career roulette or no-big-deal?

My childhood dentist had told me, “It’s nice to have a quirky smile.”

Hm… Judge that as you will, it resulted in me sporting the famous British teeth for most of my life and regretting not pushing for braces when I was younger. (To be fair, none of us knew I’d be pursuing a career in the public eye, or that the Hollywood smile would become such a thing in those days.) As an adult, the cost of orthodontics seemed intimidating and prohibitive. Then, when discussing it with other singers, they’d look very serious and say, “Oh, don’t mess with your teeth, darling, it could really affect your voice.” Fully scaremongered, I just swept the idea aside. I would occasionally see others sporting almost invisible braces and wonder…

Once my 20s were further into my rear-view mirror than I care to admit, I started to feel my crooked teeth were aging and increasingly unflattering. I always hated how they looked in photos. I was still very reticent to plunge into what seemed like drastic action.

Then, just before the chaos of the 2020 COVID crisis, I met my husband – lucky me! We ended up locking down together and it worked a charm for us. When I told my Dad we were getting married, he said, “Congratulations! Why don’t you get your teeth done?” (Uh… thanks, Dad!) It seemed amusingly tactless at the time, but I LOVE him for giving me the nudge - we were spending all that money on the wedding anyway, so to sweep a bit extra into straightening my teeth seemed relatively small fry.

I did it and I’m so thrilled with my lovely husband... Oh, and my lovely, straight teeth, ka-ching!

…So, would I recommend it?

The short answer is, yes.

If you’re thinking about it for yourself and want to know more about what I experienced, read on.

There are definitely a few things to consider.

The first step I took was to look out for other singers who had done the same.

I jumped onto social media and I reached out to an amazing dramatic soprano weaving a stunning career in Europe, Rachel Nicholls. I knew her from my time at the Royal College of Music and always appreciated her sharp wit and common-sense. She advised me to choose an orthodontist carefully and shared a bit about her experience. I would have gone straight to hers, but it was geographically impossible, so I had to find my own…

I spent some time researching and discovered that it’s incredibly difficult to really get an idea of who you can trust based on an internet search.

Just because someone has a spangly website doesn’t mean they’re trustworthy with your teeth – I learnt this, looking for dentists some years ago. I also used a search engine that wasn’t Google to try to get underneath the ads and sites expertly optimised to appear at the top of your search. I cross referenced to various disorientating orthodontics papers and directories and gave myself more than one migraine. Perhaps you’d have better luck but, to be honest, the exercise didn’t get me very far.

I decided I’d book 3 consultation appointments with 3 different orthodontists. The first was Dr. Steffen Decker, who was consulting at my dentist surgery at the time. I immediately felt in good hands. He’s German, studied at Freiburg University and hails as ‘one of the world’s leading lingual orthodontists’. He was pretty straight-up, easily answered all my questions, and was an easy first choice. Kein B-S!

I had 3 options:

• Traditional train tracks – Definitely not for me!
• Lingual braces – Train tracks on the back of your teeth where you can’t see them. Apparently, this can get the job done pretty quickly if you’re willing to ‘take a bite out of the sour apple’ (a Steffen phrase that tickled me in his soft German accent!). Nope, not a fan of pain. Next…
• Invisalign – The plastic composite braces that you can hardly see. They plan and prep your whole treatment upfront. You’re in control of whether you wear them for the recommended 22 hours a day or not, so it’s not for the undisciplined. Perfect, I like to be in control of my own health stuff. Sold!

The first week was a bit rough… I’m a real wimp with my teeth, and the discomfort while they creaked into motion made me feel a bit miserable. I wasn’t performing much as the music industry was still grounded by COVID – good timing, perhaps. I was still teaching online, though, and my students didn’t seem to mind.

As far as singing was concerned, it was easier than I thought.

This is what I noticed at the time:

• There was sometimes a bit more tension than normal in my shoulders, jaw and sub-occipital area, but nothing more dramatic than a bad night’s sleep might cause. It also eased off over time.
• Predictably, the ‘s’ sound was a bit lispy. It wasn’t difficult to make an intuitive adjustment - especially with a bit of extra feedback from my vocal coach.
• The ‘th’ (voiced ð, as in ‘the’ and unvoiced θ, as in ‘three’) sounds were a bit strange. Tiny quantities of air would leak through the upper aligners, resulting in the odd embarrassing spit moment. It wasn’t too much of a drama to adjust for vocal quality purposes, and I didn’t spit on anyone too important… I hope!
• Sometimes there were rough edges on the aligners that caused small ulcers in my mouth. It was uncomfortable and annoying, though not intolerable. The issue seemed to completely disappear as the treatment went on.

The hardest adjustments were not singing related, but eating!

If, like me, you enjoy your food, you definitely want to be aware of this...

You wear the aligners, ideally, for 22 hours of every day. That’s just 2 hours of ‘out’ time for meals, tea, coffee and snacks (if that’s your thing). You clean your teeth thoroughly every time you put them back in. It’s definitely a commitment… They LOOK great and people say, “Oo, I can hardly tell you have braces” but I was always super aware of how I had to organise my teeth if I’m out and about, how delicate my teeth felt when I took the aligners out and how the clock was always ticking during meals… soft food, just saying!

There were some surprising pros, though.

For example, my sensitive teeth just loved the extra layer of protection. My dental hygiene was never bad but now it’s supercharged. I can actually FLOSS! (If you have an overcrowded mouth, you’ll get it.) I didn’t lose weight, in case you’re thinking it’s a thing. Actually, I probably overcompensated when I could actually eat, so watch out for that.

If you’re going for the Invisaligners, too, here are some tips that might help smooth the process:

• Have a neat dental kit packed with you at all times with your aligner case inside.
• Set a timer on your phone when you take the retainers out, if you tend to lose track of time. Otherwise you may start falling behind or feeling extra discomfort when you change aligners.
• Black tea and coffee, and coloured drinks stain the retainers alarmingly quickly, but I would carry a metal drinking straw in my bag if I went out for a (colourless) drink of an evening. Be cautious with this one, though, as you don’t want sugary or alcoholic stuff sitting in your aligners for too long...
• If, like me, you have sensitive teeth, you can pop a tiny bit of toothpaste in your aligners overnight, which worked a treat!
• …and… if you’re on a long-haul flight and pop your retainers in a cup of water while you eat, DON’T THEN THROW THEM IN THE BIN BY MISTAKE! (Yup, I really did that. Fortunately, I had the next set handy and the early adjustment wasn’t too horrendous.)

The big day came when I went to have the ceramics taken off.

(You still have white ceramics on to help the aligners move your teeth.)

I was a bit anxious. The ceramics were painlessly ground away and then came the big question… was it ok to ‘polish’?...

I’d had irrational nightmares about having short teeth, ground down too far (I told you I was a wimp!). As my teeth moved the length of my front incisors became really quite uneven, so I knew there would be adjustments to make.

My fears were completely unfounded. Steffen did a beautiful job, minimally and tastefully shaping my teeth. I may have been a bit emotional when he showed me my new smile… just a tiny bit.

Now I’m enjoying my new teeth, hooray!

Weirdly, there are a few things to get used to when you finally have straight teeth. Who knew!

• I actually MISS my aligners. Believe it or not, it’s hard to break the habit, so I actually wear my plastic retainers quite a bit during the day, too.
• My teeth felt a bit soft and delicate for a couple of weeks but it soon settled down.
• It actually took a few weeks to get used to my new bite without aligners. The ‘s’ pronunciation took a bit of time to settle and my top and bottom front teeth would knock awkwardly together – having had an overbite, they were used to having a bit more space. I hadn’t expected that but, again, it has pretty much resolved itself.

Overall, I’m thrilled.

I do have one big gripe about the Invisalign system, though.

THEY ARE NOT RECYCLEABLE! They’re made of composite plastic, for one thing. Then they are treated as bio-hazard waste, as they’ve been sitting in your mouth. Personally, I find it horrifying to add all that plastic to landfill, but that’s exactly what is expected to happen with them. Dreadful. I’m still storing my old aligners, looking for an alternative – I believe there are some practices that dispose of them responsibly, but not many. There’s definitely room for improvement here.

At my last appointment, Steffen asked me if it has affected/improved my breathing at all. It’s entirely possible that it has, but I’m not sure. It’s also likely that there is improved capacity for ‘space’ in the back of my mouth. Actually, my tone has improved, but I couldn’t be certain it’s because of my teeth. It certainly hasn’t caused any negative effects to my sound, in spite of all of that fear-mongering all those years ago!

I believe I’ve been fortunate. I stumbled on a great orthodontist and am not really aware of any horrors of treatments gone wrong. I don’t know how risky it is, given the Invisalign system involves planning the whole treatment in detail before any physical adjustments are made in your mouth. Still, the practitioner does the designing, and an experienced orthodontist is a must if you’re a singer, or your livelihood depends on it in any way. If you’re fortunate enough to be able to see Dr. Steffen Decker, I can definitely recommend him.

Best of luck with your gnashers!

Note: All the above is based on my own experience and personal opinion, and is genuinely impartial. No sopranos were harmed in the making of this blog!