Talk:Pharyngeal reflex

message: Medical suppressing op the gag reflex is done by consuming Cyclizine.
Mion 19:35, 22 January 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Can we have a verifiable source for that? --Verithrax 23:29, 21 May 2006 (UTC)

text: Also re: medical treatment, I added a citation needed tag for the treatment via pressure , since I couldn't find any scholarly articles about this. I did find this reference however: http://www.newcastle-hospitals.org.uk/services/dental_treamtment_and_medication_hypersensitive-gag-reflex.aspx, but I wasn't certain whether or not this was valid enough for the articular --Anon User 20:31, 10 May 2016 (UTC)
thread_title: Medical

message: How can you cite answers.com, another site with user-generated content. That's like citing wikipedia.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by Unquenchablefire (talk • contribs) 21:05, 13 February 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: Yeah, wikpedia probably shouldn't site tertiary sources, so I've used the citation tool that answers.com provides which provided both WordNet (from Princeton) and answers.com in the citation.  -- Charles (Kznf) (talk) 17:58, 22 April 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Answers.com? 

message: "Absence of the gag reflex is a symptom of a number of severe medical conditions, such as damage to the glossopharyngeal nerve, the vagus nerve, or death." -- I suppose whoever wrote this meant that absence of the gag reflex can lead to death, but I don't have the knowledge to edit this myself. As it is, it says that its absence is a symptom of death. It's ultimately correct, but obvious! Plus, I don't think death qualifies as a severe medical condition ;-) -- ironcito (talk) 23:08, 25 March 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: I read it and laughed too, but I think it's probably a reference to brain death? The gag reflex is one of the cranial nerve tests that a comatose patient must fail in order to qualify as fully brain dead, which is a legitimate definition of death. Also means the patient can be taken off life support. I'll change the death to brain death; anyone feel free to reword it in a better fashion if they deem fit. Nitroshockwave (talk) 07:12, 9 April 2008 (UTC)

text: It's most likely a reference to checking for a gag reflex to determine if a person is dead.  Without modern medical equipment, it could be fairly difficult to tell the difference between dead and comatose, so after feeling for a pulse and holding a mirror under the nostrils to check for fogging, checking for a gag reflex seems like a reasonable precaution.  The wording _is_ a bit odd, though.  Elmo iscariot (talk) 14:13, 26 November 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Symptom of death? 

message: "Absence of the gag reflex is a symptom of a number of severe medical conditions..." We don't want people thinking that they need to see their doctor if they have no gag reflex, as many normal people don't have one. e.g.:
Up to 1/3rd of healthy people do not have a gag reflex.
Davies AE, Kidd D, Stone SP, MacMahon J (1995). Pharyngeal sensation and gag reflex in healthy subjects. Lancet 345:487–488
can we put something in along these lines?
58.168.142.207 (talk) 09:41, 10 July 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Always a symptom of death? 

message: I removed this unsourced statement:
Holding the thumb of either hand in a fist of the same hand suppresses the gag reflex, allowing the other hand to touch the soft palate and uvula without stimulation of the reflex.
—Christian Campbell 17:00, 25 August 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: Well, I tried it and it's correct. Does anyone have an idea of how to source something can be so easily verified? —Dromioofephesus (talk) 02:02, 28 October 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  Unsourced statement about suppressing gag reflex 

message: This topic falls in the professional scope of medical speech-language pathology, and I am looking to see if experts in the field have contributed to this article. As a recent master's graduate in that field, I am concerned about the content, especially since a professor of mine taught us information contrary to the entire premise of this article (gag "reflex" is a misnomer, since it's actually a gag "response" that is not a true reflex, whereas the automatic triggering of a swallow is a true physiologic reflex). He pointed out to us that in a true reflex, there would be no way for the system to "know" what stimulus at the back of the tongue was food vs. non-food attached to some item that couldn't feasibly be swallowed. That makes sense to me logically based on what I know about reflexes, and leads me to believe there is a psychologic process (albeit subconscious) participating in this "reflex," discrediting its nature as a reflex, but that's just my own speculation/curiosity and I wouldn't include it here. Beyond that, I don't have anything to contribute to describing the actual process of the gag response, since it is not particularly related to the natural swallowing process and all I've learned about it formally is that remark from the professor (a voice specialist) and his recommendations for simple approaches to reducing a hypersensitive one for patients requiring frequent oral rigid laryngoscopy (relaxation, gentle stimulation with a toothbrush progressing backward over time).
I think this article would more appropriately be contained as a stub/description of the misnomer followed by descriptive characteristics of the response and function thereof (I do not claim it's not useful, just that the information on it is inaccurate) with a "see-also" to information on the swallow itself as well as the nature of reflexes themselves. For anyone not convinced by the professor's statement or my speculation (great to question individual opinions!), some evidence weakening the argument that this process is a "reflex" is that it is certainly not robust or consistent across individuals: according the article here, with a literature source supporting the claim, a third of people don't show it. That also brings me to another key problem with the article here: sources here are quite limited and of questionable relevance, relating mostly to the swallow itself and to obscure aspects of it at that. I would suggest delving into sources cited by the study that showed 1/3 of people don't show a gag response to find more relevant information with any scientific basis, and leaving the info on swallowing to the articles concerning that process.
I had written another detailed paragraph on why the info here on swallowing itself and airway protection is problematic, but realized that's not relevant to this discussion when I'm suggesting that section to be removed from here and reduced to a concise statement within a main paragraph with a hot link and a "see also". My comments on that available on request. Again, I do not represent myself as an expert in comparison to anyone who has been practicing for some time, but if anybody more expert in swallowing or voice is participating in the content, I would like to hear their take on it, since a major overhaul is not something I would do without consulting others who may have other information. Either way, I will also follow up with that professor, and take a peek at relevant sources, though I'm not committing to writing up a new article. Faladora (talk) 01:10, 11 January 2018 (UTC)
thread_title:  SLP's editing this article? Major concerns on accuracy, including premise that this is a reflex in the first place

message: Why aren’t we calling this article “Gag reflex” per WP:Common names?   User:Dunkleosteus77 |push to talk  14:34, 6 November 2018 (UTC)
replies: text: I came here to ask the same question. Jean-de-Nivelle (talk) 17:13, 17 September 2023 (UTC)
thread_title:  Title