Gag Reflex And Dentists - How To Control Your Gag Reflex


by Angie Walters - Date: 2007-06-24 - Word Count: 300 Share This!

Your gag reflex is a perfectly natural part of your body's self defense mechanism.

Which is good to know until you're lying back in the dentist's chair, waiting for some routine work to be done and then suddenly you feel the irresistible urge to vomit. Which isn't pleasant for you or your dentist.

Then the panic starts to kick in and as well as gagging, you maybe break out in a cold sweat.

What can you do to reduce your gag reflex at times when it's being a hindrance rather than being helpful?

If the problem only occurs when you visit the dentist, they may well have staff who can give you advice.

Part of that advice will be to breathe deeply through your nose. This works in two ways. Breathing through your nose uses a partially different passageway for the air. And deep breathing has a naturally calming effect. This simple step may be enough to cure your gag reflex, at least for the dentist's session.

You may also find that they can spray a small amount of local anesthetic onto the affected area, to stop your gag reflex from happening long enough for the job to be done.

Of course, if the problem is happening on a day to day basis, you'll need to take a different approach. You shouldn't be using local anesthetics on yourself as part of your regular routine!

Quite often, your gag reflex is something that you learned to do. At some stage, your body may have got into an "over protective" mode. The trouble is, once you've learned how to do something, including gagging in certain circumstances, it's not always easy to "unlearn" how to do it. But it is possible. Using methods such as hypnosis, you can re-train your mind to deal with the situation differently next time it occurs.


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