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I have just returned to tuba after over 13 years of not playing because I mistakenly believed that it was not possible to play brass with upper dentures. I started out on trumpet around the beginning of the year after seeing the Chet Baker movie, then switched to trombone for a few months, but I finally have gone back to my first love, the tuba, about a month ago. My question is about the palate of the upper dentures, it seems that when I move air through the embouchure the back of the palate has some restriction to the air flow. When I was in the US Army Band, I had a retainer but never played with it in. Should I just work on ignoring it and overcoming the restriction in my head, or have any of y’all experienced this and have some suggestions to work around it?

One suggestion/possibility would be that IF your maxilla has the proper amount and quality of bone (your DDS would advise you on that), MINI IMPLANTS could be utilized to support/add retention to your upper denture. With those supports, the palatial section of the upper denture could be removed. Mini implants, unlike traditional dental implants, are fairly easy to place. Most oral surgeons could place them IF you qualify. Being you are located in the Inland Empire, Loma Linda University School of Dentistry might be a source of further information and diagnosis for possible qualification for such implants.....just a thought. Otherwise, I suppose it would be a physiological and mental adjustment to that upper prosthetic and playing. One other thought would be to thin down the palatial section of that upper denture.