For years, the importance of not sharing personal items that we put in our mouths – from soda cans to toothbrushes – has been drilled into our consciousness. Physicians, dentists and government organizations like the Center for Disease Control (CDC) have cited the risks inherent in sharing these items.

However, every day, musicians – including millions of school-aged children – take a similar risk each time they pick up their wind instrument. Parents of school-aged musicians have long believed that the schools or music dealers from whom they rent, loan, or buy have been taking steps to ensure these instruments have been sterilized. But, in fact, they have not been, because the sterilization technology has not been available up until now.

In the mid 1990s, Dr. Lorenzo Lepore, a practicing dentist in Massachusetts, was approached by a school music teacher who had loaned a school-owned wind instrument to a sick student musician. She sought his advice before loaning it out to another student. Dr. Lepore instructed her to have the instrument sterilized but then learned that there was no accepted method for sterilizing instruments that likely harbored bacteria. Dr. Lepore set out to find a solution, and committed more than eight years to researching and identifying an EPA-approved sterilization process that could be used for wind instruments.

MaestroMD is NOW AVAILABLE to parents, through authorized school music dealers in the continental USA. In about 10 business days, your order is processed and your instrument is returned to you, sterilized in its case, 100% free of all bacteria, and ready to be safely played.

Depending on the size of the instrument, the retail price for MaestroMD including all shipping and handling, starts at $49.99.

MaestroMD has the capacity to sterilize virtually every known musical wind instruments. When you order MaestroMD, you will be able to identify your instrument from hundreds of models and specific brands that constitute these popular wind instruments.

Until Dr. Lepore began his research into the topic of wind instrument sterilization nobody had considered such risks. If you played an instrument as a child, you could very well have gotten strep or had one continuous health issue after another which could simply not have been explained. And pediatricians and doctors have not been programmed to ask, “Do you play a wind instrument?”, so the correlation has never been made.

The fact is, it takes epidemiologists and a considerable amount of health sleuthing to connect the dots. Consider the “discoveries” surrounding the danger of asbestos and lead paint. Our parents had no intention of putting us in harm’s way when our basements were filled with asbestos. Nor did we consider that our children would be eating the paint from window sills and contracting lead paint poisoning. Discovering these dangers took years.

And consider another discovery – in the early 1990’s the dental profession came under intense scrutiny when a dentist in Florida inadvertently infected several patients, which ultimately lead to their deaths.

These deaths in Florida led to significant changes in the way dentistry is practiced in the United States. Today, every credible medical or dental practitioner would demand that any instrument being put into the mouth of a patient be sterilized prior to use on a subsequent patient.

In 2004, Dr. Lepore had his efforts to have wind instruments considered with the same seriousness as medical devices publicly validated. That year the FDA declared its support of Encore’s efforts in developing MaestroMD. The Agency issued a letter stating: “We agree that Encore Etc., Inc. is addressing a valid public health issue consistent with the universal precautions adhered to in medical/dental settings relative to instruments contaminated with body fluids.”

Basically this means that wind instruments should be treated the same way that medical devices are

Formal medical studies on the millions of musical wind instruments in the general population have not been performed due to the exorbitant costs and logistics that would be involved in testing these instruments. In lieu of such broad population testing, Encore Etc., Inc. conducted laboratory-based scientific studies which proved that bacteria causing staph and strep infections, sore throats, and much more serious diseases such as meningitis and tuberculosis can survive and even grow inside a musical wind instrument.

Encore Etc., Inc, the developer of MaestroMD, commissioned laboratory research in which five specific bacteria were introduced to a set of musical wind instruments. These instruments were then stored and tested at 7, 14, and 21 elapsed days to determine which, if any, of the bacteria remained alive.

A total of 95 tests were completed over the 21 days and one out of three tests was positive for living bacteria. It is also very important to note that the specific set of tests performed on the 21st day reported positive for living bacteria in one of four tests – even after 21 days had passed.

Encore Etc., Inc. believes this scientific data strongly suggests that bacteria could live long past 21 days in a musical wind instrument. This belief was reinforced when five of the instruments from the 21-day test were used for additional testing five months later. One of the bacteria used in the original test (tuberculosis surrogate) was found still living in two of the five instruments…five months after they were originally “infected.”

In other laboratory research conducted by Encore Etc., Inc., four wind instrument mouthpieces were “infected” with four different bacteria, and were then stored in a sealed humid atmosphere for seven days. The test was intended to simulate an instrument being put away without being dried and stored in its case for a week after being played, a habit that is fairly common among many student musicians.

After seven days, testing revealed that all four of the bacteria were still alive, and three of the four bacteria populations actually grew in size. Population growth in these three bacteria ranged from a 62% increase up to a 93% increase.

"Cleaned", "disinfected", "deodorized", or "sanitized" do not mean the same thing as "sterilized". The only way to be sure that the mouthpiece is 100% free from all harmful bacteria is through sterilization.

Music dealers and schools have used various methods of cleaning and disinfecting instruments before passing them from one student to another - some more effective than others. Until recently, it has not occurred to anyone that bacteria could live inside the instrument where conventional cleaning methods are either impractical or inadequate.

It is common to "suck back" when playing a woodwind and many brass players commonly angle their instruments up into the air when playing, allowing some fluid to drain backward. Both of these practices could create a path for the harmful bacteria to make its way back into the mouth from the body of the instrument.

Regular cleaning and disinfecting of mouthpieces and wind instruments are critical, but to be guaranteed of being 100% bacteria free, sterilization is the only solution.

Encore Etc., Inc. realizes that for some music programs, and for some instruments (i.e. tubas shared by multiple players throughout the day), sterilization may be impractical or unaffordable. While sterilization is the optimal solution, disinfecting mouthpieces between uses, with the strongest method available in the industry, is always recommended.

This is the beauty of MaestroMD! The combination of the molecular properties of the sterilization gas and the highly controlled environment in the sterilization enclosure allows the sterilization gas to flow through spaces so small that they are invisible to the eye.

The gas actually flows through the cellulose cardboard box, through the air gaps in the seams of your case, through the special fabric contained in the MaestroMD pouch, and finally completely fills the air spaces inside your case and instrument.

Encore Etc., Inc. precisely controls the amount of time the gas is left in your case and instrument, which allows it to do its job. Then a series of steps reverse the process to make sure that the sterilization gas is completely removed from inside the case and your instrument.

When your instrument is returned, the outside shipping box will have a “Sterilized by MaestroMD” decal.On the inside pouch there will be another label, which is gas sensitive, that will read “Sterilized by MaestroMD”. These two labels are your guarantee that the instrument is bacteria-free.

We recommend that you sterilize your instrument when you receive it, even if it is new, and especially if it is rented, or purchased through an on-line auction or ad, and when you do not fully know the health history of the previous player.

During cold and flu season, particularly if your child has a persevering sore throat or cough, you might consider sterilizing his or her instrument during the holiday break.

MaestroMD is more than sterilization; it’s a health system for your wind instrument. Between sterilizations, we recommend using our MaestroMD Health Maintenance Kit. Available for most instruments, these kits include mouthpiece brushes, swabs, snakes, neckcleaners and cleaning clothes, and a germicide spray, MaestroClean™, that cleans, disinfects, and deodorizes your instrument. The retail price for the kits start at $9.99 each.