This hypersensitivity can lead to issues in various situations, such as swallowing a pill or large bites of food, or visiting the dentist.
There are a variety of ways to desensitize one's hypersensitivity, from relaxation to numbing the mouth and throat to training one's soft palate to get used to being touched.
[citation needed] Anti-nausea medicines, sedatives, local and general anaesthetics, herbal remedies, behavioural therapies, acupressure, acupuncture, laser, and prosthetic devices can be used to manage exaggerated gag reflex during dental treatment.
Studies showed with very low‐certainty evidence that acupuncture and laser at the P6 point (located in the wrist) reduced gagging without sedation.
[3] Some people seem to be able to completely stop their gag reflex for a short time by pressing certain pressure points, even without prior training.
At one point, it was thought that a lack of the gag reflex in stroke patients was a good predictor for dysphagia (difficulty with swallowing) or laryngeal aspiration (food or drink entering the larynx), and was therefore commonly checked for.
However, in one study, 37% of healthy people did not have a gag reflex, yet all subjects except for one still retained an intact pharyngeal sensation.
Since this reflex is commonly not found in healthy people, its predictive value in determining the risk for swallowing disorders is severely limited.
Pharyngeal sensation, on the other hand, as seen by this study, is rarely absent, and could prove better at predicting future problems with swallowing.