How to Stop Gagging!

About 1/3 of the population doesn’t have a gag reflex. For all the rest of us, especially those with an extremely sensitive gag reflex, gagging can make life miserable! It can make brushing your teeth, swallowing pills, going to the dentist, wearing dentures, or even looking at tongue depressors or other cringe inducing objects extremely uncomfortable.

For the first 23 years of my life, I too had a phenomenally bad gag reflex. Brushing my teeth in the morning?… Near impossible without losing my breakfast. Trying to swallow pills?… Hope they aren’t too big! Fluoride trays at the dentist?… They hid me in a back room and the rest of the office could still hear me gagging. Dental impressions?… I’m not sure how they managed these.

Then a crazy thing happened… I found that gagging could be controlled! Since then, it hasn’t been a problem for me. We’ll get to how I did this in just a bit.

What Causes Gagging?

Gagging is a protective reflex that your body has so that you don’t let food or other objects down your pharynx (windpipe). Food or other objects going down your pharynx into your lungs isn’t good. Gagging protects you from doing this. It is when this reflex is overactive that it can cause a problem with everyday activities.

There is a physical component as a mental component to gagging. First the physical component…You have a variety of touch receptors in your mouth located on the roof of your mouth, tongue, and back of your throat. Touch a certain area and it sends a signal to your central nervous system which immediately sends a signal back for muscles in the area to contract (the actually act of gagging). People have varying levels of sensitivity to how much it takes to cause this reflex.

On top of this reflex, you have a mental component that can make your gag reflex hyperactive. Ever wondered how you can just look at something and you’ll feel the familiar gag feeling coming on? Thoughts can literally turn on the gag reflex.

Your gag reflex is a complicated mix of these two factors. They both have to be addressed in order to really reduce your gag reflex. The good news is that it can be done!…

Short Term Gag Reflex Fixes:

• Controlled breathing – If you feel your gag reflex coming on, close your eyes, and take several deep breaths through your nose. This action relaxes your whole body including your gag reflex. Panicking always makes it worse. I found that this was the most helpful way to relieve my oncoming gag reflex early on.
• Sitting up – If you’re at the dentist and laying back, especially during dental impressions, ask if they can sit you up. Not only does it keep excess material from going down your throat, but it also seems to calm most people down.
• Distraction – While doing your controlled breathing,  think of something, anything other than what is currently happening. Go to your happy place. Pinch yourself. Listen to music. Watch TV. Anything that will make you think of something else. This will significantly help with the mental part of your gag reflex.
• Topical or injected anesthetics – If you’re having a really tough time at the dentist, they usually have a topical anesthetic spray that will numb your tongue and back of your throat. It tastes horrific but is helpful in reducing the physical sensations that trigger your gag reflex. In especially bad situations your dentist can inject anesthetic to get you even more numb.
• Sedation – For some people, none of the previous tips are enough to overcome their hyperactive gag reflex. In these rare cases, some level of sedation can be helpful in reducing the gag reflex. Sedation can range from an extremely mild sedative all the way to heavy sedation where you won’t remember a thing.
• Salt on your tongue – Many people like to put salt on their tongue to help with gagging. We’re not sure exactly why this is helpful. It could be distracting or it may change the sensation on the tongue. Either way, it definitely can’t hurt.
• Acupuncture – There have been a couple of interesting studies on acupuncture as a way to reduce the gag reflex. It is thought to help but in most cases there isn’t anyone available who knows enough about acupuncture for this to be a good way to reduce your gag reflex.
• Pressure points – Similar to acupuncture but a bit easier is the concept of pressure points. The most common pressure point for gagging is on the inside of the wrist.

How To Stop Gagging Forever:

Ever wondered how a sword swallower could possibly do what they do? I always wondered that too seeing that I couldn’t get a finger within an inch of the back of my mouth before I started gagging. Sword swallowers learned a trick that just about anyone can use to overcome their gag reflex. It can take some time but I think it is worth it.

So what happened when I was 23 that changed my gag reflex? I can’t take a whole lot of credit for actually coming up with this myself… it was more thrust on me involuntarily. I had started dental school and one of the fun things that dental students get to do is take dental impressions on each other. Repeatedly. And then do some more. And some more. Until we get really good at them. When I heard about this, I didn’t think I was going to make it. I couldn’t brush my teeth in the morning successfully and I was supposed to sit through dozens of impressions?

Well, I didn’t have much of a choice so we got started. My partner took the first impression and I predictably about lost my lunch. The next impression, I sat up, breathed through my nose, tried to go to my happy place, and relax. It was a little easier. We took about twelve dental impressions on each other that day. Each one got a little easier. By the end, it didn’t bother me at all.

Since that day, life has been easier. My gag reflex is normal. I can’t swallow swords but I can brush my teeth, swallow pills, and make it through dental appointments with ease. The only time I gag is if something touches the absolute back of my throat (that’s considered normal for most people). You can do this too. Now I’m not recommending getting twelve dental impressions done in a row but the process is similar. This process is called desensitization and it is highly effective for permanently improving your gag reflex.

The Solution – Densensitization

I didn’t know it at the time, but when we were taking those dental impressions we were progressively desensitizing my gag reflex. You can do this too. First, you’ll need to find what spots cause your gag reflex to be most sensitive. For most people these areas are the roof of the mouth (beyond a certain point), the back and side of the tongue, and the back of your throat.

Now for the fun part.

You’re going to have to stimulate your gag reflex repeatedly. Take a toothbrush and touch the area that gives you fits. Try to keep it there as long as possible without causing yourself to vomit. Rest a minute, and then go again. Try to keep the toothbrush there longer. If you’re having gagging issues with dentures, use them to do the same thing. The goal is to progressively increase the amount of time and pressure you can tolerate. It may take several weeks but eventually you’ll get to a point where your gag reflex isn’t so hyperactive. I recommend doing this 5-10 times a day for several minutes at a time.

Desensitizing my gag reflex was life changing. I never thought it could happen but it did. You can do it too! Stick with it and you’ll get there.