Re: Why can't someone with a dry mouth, whistle or blow balloons?

Laura,

Your question is a very interesting one, especially as I tend to suffer 
from mild dryness of the mouth as a congenital condition.

I went looking for information on mouth physiology, dry mouth and dry 
mouth syndrome (officially known as Sjogren's 
syndrome, as well as whistling and professional whistlers, and I came 
up with very little. However, I did perform some experiments and those, 
combined with what I did find, lead me to some possibilities.

First, as for whistling... it actually is possible to whistle with a dry 
mouth. I confirmed this by an experiment on myself wherein I used cotton 
gauze to dry the inner surface of my lips, tongue, gums and cheek and then 
trying to whistle. I was successful, but had to learn to pucker up 
properly almost from scratch.

What I observed is that my mouth felt completely different when it was 
dry - the tissues were far less supple and responsive than normal and it 
took more effort to get them into position to make a sound. It seems to me 
whistling requires feeling your mouth and tongue and learning what sound 
is made when your mouth feels like it's in a certain position; drastically 
changing the way your mouth feels makes it necessary to learn all over 
again what a particular position of mouth and tongue feels like before you 
can control the sound, again. As well, the lack of suppleness in the 
tissues makes it harder to form them into the correct shape.

Now, balloons were a trickier proposition. I was also able to blow up a 
balloon with a dry mouth, but I had to use an artificial prop to form the 
seal around the neck of the balloon - in short, I cheated. Without that 
sealing prop, I couldn't get the balloon to inflate properly.

When you blow up a balloon with your mouth your lips for a seal about the 
neck of the balloon and prevents air from escaping. The seal is made when 
the moist tissue on the inside of your mouth forms around the opening in 
the balloon and clings to it, the thin film of moisture between lips and 
latex forming the seal. If your mouth is dry the tissues don't stretch as 
well, so it's harder to get your lips into the proper position; you also 
don't have any moisture between balloon and lips to form the final 
airtight seal that prevents your breath from escaping - and the balloon 
won't inflate.

It might be intersting to try a few experiments on your own to see if you 
can find a way to whistle with a dry mouth, or whether other sealing 
agents such as lipstick or petroleum jelly would allow a person to inflate 
a balloon, to see what would happen.

I hope this has been helpful.