Believe it or not, gaging while brushing your teeth and or tongue is a common issue that many people. Although you may be embarrassed to speak to our Coral Springs dentist about it, we do understand and are often asked why this happens and how to prevent it.
If you have a sensitive gag reflex, you probably are one of many that experiences this problem. We are here to help and offer some tips and advice on how to combat this issue.
Let us talk medically for a minute. The gag reflex is known as the pharyngeal reflex and it is a reflex contraction of the back of your throat. When an object like a toothbrush or a large pill reaches the back of your tongue, the roof of your mouth, or near the tonsils it will provoke the contraction to prevent choking. When the sensory nerve ending is touched by the toothbrush, a nerve impulse goes to your sensory neuron which carries the muscle to contract, thus, the gag reflex.
You have many reflexes that contract in your body such as when the doctor taps your knee, your leg jerks up. Your body was made to protect you, so when you blink, for example, your wink reflex is protecting the eye from foreign substances from entering. Research shows that at least ten to fifteen percent of people have a hypersensitive gag reflex.
This reflex does not only gag those sensitive while brushing their teeth, but also when they need to take a pill or eating sticky foods like mashed potatoes or bananas. Some people also gag when they smell something bad!
When some people have a hypersensitive gag reflex, they may tend to brush only their front teeth and skip the back teeth, or they may forgo flossing their back teeth. This is not a healthy practice and will lead to cavities or other dental issues in the future. So, is there anything that can help to stop the gagging? There are a few tricks that our Coral Springs dentist recommends.
Many times, these little tips help to get your mind off of what you are doing so that you can properly brush and get your teeth nice and clean.
It prevents swallowing by contracting the pharynx. The pharynx is the passageway from the mouth and nose into the esophagus food pipe , the tube that connects the throat to the stomach. In some cases, a person may gag extremely hard. When this occurs, it can cause stomach spasms, leading to a feeling of nausea or resulting in a person vomiting.
A somatogenic stimulus is one that physically makes direct contact with a trigger point. In relation to oral trigger points, this may be a large piece of food or a foreign object.
The activation of a trigger point causes nerve signals to pass to the brain, which then signals the pharynx to contract. In this instance, the gag reflex is an attempt to prevent a person from choking or swallowing something potentially dangerous.
Although trigger points in the mouth may vary, a gag reflex will typically occur when something stimulates the base of the tongue, the uvula, or the tonsil area. Some people may gag from a very gentle touch on a trigger point, while others may be able to tolerate a more intense sensation before gagging. A psychogenic stimulus is a mental trigger that causes a person to gag. Generally, a psychogenic stimulus is a response to disgust. Therefore, a person may gag when experiencing an unpleasant thought.
Physical and mental stimuli can be separate events or happen at the same time. A person may, therefore, also gag due to certain sights, sounds, and smells. This combination of psychogenic and somatogenic stimuli can explain why some people may gag only under certain circumstances. As the main reason why a gag reflex occurs is to prevent a person from choking, it is not advisable to try stopping it.
It may also take years of physical and mental retraining to stop a gag reflex. However, it is possible that some people have no gag reflex, have a higher threshold to physical trigger points, or are yet to face a sensation extreme enough to cause them to gag.
Whenever you eat, chew, or speak, your tongue's tip comes in contact with your hard palate, and the friction removes bacteria and debris buildup. In contrast, the back portion of your tongue only contacts the soft palate, and the movements your tongue makes near the area are fairly gentle. Consequently, you may see a white, gray, or brownish film building up in a triangular section of your tongue. This is the area you'll need to focus on whenever you brush or clean with a tongue scraper.
Unfortunately, the back portion of your tongue can also trigger your pharyngeal reflex or gag reflex. If you accidentally place your scraper or toothbrush too far back while you clean, you may find yourself heaving. To remove buildup without gagging, find the center groove in your tongue and follow it back to where the line ends.
Gently place your scraper at this portion of your tongue and pull the scraper forward toward the less-sensitive tip. Don't clean the bumpy mounds of tonsillar tissue at the furthest reaches of your tongue. If you find that the end of your groove is still too sensitive to clean effectively, position the scraper a little further forward and scrape from there.
With practice, you can suppress your gag reflex and work the scraper further and further back until you can completely scrub away the buildup.
If you don't own a tongue scraper yet, you can still clean your tongue without losing your latest meal. You simply have to alter your brushing technique.
Many people intuitively hold their toothbrushes parallel to their tongue. The up and down motion allows the toothbrush to slide over the tongue easily, often reducing cleaning time. However, this motion also allows the toothbrush to slide back to the tongue and trigger the gag reflex.
To maintain greater control over your brush and your reflex, turn your toothbrush so it rests perpendicular to your tongue.
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