A new study from Italy came out last month showing that acupuncture reduced the gag reflex in dental patients while they were having work performed. Procedures like taking teeth impressions can produce reflexive gagging, which causes some patients to avoid necessary dental care.This study involved twenty patients with a history of gag reflex when getting dental impressions. Patients had upper and lower impressions taken, once without acupuncture and a second time with acupuncture treatment. After each impression participants were asked to rate their gag reflex on a scale of 1-10 (10 being the worst). The results showed a significant reduction in the gag reflex scores after acupuncture. For upper impressions the average gag reflex scores fell from 6.8 to 1.1 and lower impressions from 5.45 to 0.4. Pretty impressive!
Source: Gag reflex control through acupuncture: a case series. Giuseppa Bilello, Antonella FregapaneAcupunct Med doi:10.1136/acupmed-2013-010377