How to Avoid Gagging While Brushing Your Tongue

Steps

1. Exhale through your mouth while brushing your tongue.
2. Breathe in and out deeply. Avoid holding your breath, or concentrating on breathing one way or the other, as it will make things worse.
   • Push the tongue down hard into the lower part of the mouth behind the teeth. This will give you some "extra time" in between. As soon as the tongue starts to wobble, then stop, give it a few moments to retrieve your strength and try again.
3. *Hold your toothbrush perpendicular to your tongue--brushing from the side. Putting your toothbrush in the long way will make it easier to 'slip' into the danger zone and is also more psychologically invasive (makes you think of gagging).

Tips

• Keep in mind where you are brushing with your tongue. It's not necessary to delve deep into the back of your throat, where you might nick your uvula and initiate a gag reflex.
• As with anything, practice makes perfect. If you find trouble brushing your tongue using your toothbrush, there are good tongue scrapers which can be bought from the pharmacy.
• You can also try "flossing" your tongue. Take a normal length of dental floss and drag it down across your tongue. This works well for individuals with a particularly high gag reflex.
• Avoid watching yourself in the mirror, don't think about it!