Psychogenic gagging: identification and treatment recommendations.

Uncontrollable disruptive gagging makes most dental procedures impossible to perform. Well-intentioned interventions by dentists often fail because of the inability to differentiate between psychogenic disruptive gagging and disruptive gagging of somatic origin. To help the clinician differentiate the diagnosis and management of somatogenic disruptive gagging from the psychogenic form, a review of the pertinent literature, diagnostic criteria, treatment recommendations, and a clinical case of psychogenic disruptive gagging are presented.