Nausea /gag underwater??

[boat sju]

Besides trying a different mouthpiece make sure you're not clenching your teeth too tightly. You don't really have to clamp down that hard, relax.

Are you getting heartburn too?

 

[savsuds]

i chew gum while I dive. Keeps my mouth moist.

 

[Marie13]

Gagging from the mouthpiece was actually one of my concerns when I first tried diving last month. Going to the dentist is just awful. The mouthpiece on the rental reg was too big and triggered my gag reflex something awful. But I learned how to hold it in my mouth a certain way which really helped. Before my OW pool sessions, I bought my own reg and had a smaller mouthpiece put on it. Made all the difference in the world.

 

[outofofficebrb]

Are you getting this feeling as you're ascending? If so you could be swallowing air and it's expanding as you ascend. This happens to me a lot and I am usually feeling pretty nauseated at the surface until I burp my air out.

 

[VR78]

Where are you located? Can the purity of the air (well, the lack thereof, e.g. oil contamination) be a problem?

 

[Wes88]

I don't know if it's from keeping the regulator in my mouth so long,l or what, but after a while, I get this huge gag reflex while I'm underwater, like I'm going to throw up underwater or something (it's not nausea, it's just a gag reflex feeling) does anyone ever get this??? It wasn't seasickness. On my last dive, I had to surface. Maybe I need a better mouthpiece? Someone told me it's because I'm swallowing air???

I

 

[Aanderson81]

If it is dry air, I rather liked my Oasis regulator before i swapped to a full face mask. It has metal fins to capture moisture as you exhale and then the dry air us moistened a bit from those fins. I found it helped with my dry mouth quite a bit.

 

[Wes88]

I first started diving with a double hose regulator and never had the gag sensation. it may just be old age, or maybe the single hose regs are different in some way in addition to the obvious. The double hose regs used a real thin check valve and a duckbill valve which I believe makes exhaling easier. When I get the gag sensation and go to the surface and breathe through my mouth without the reg the sensation goes away immediately. Since the new regs can be dialed back to almost free flow, it can't be the inhalation resistance, so it must be the exhalation resistance. Have bought a second stage with a larger exhaust valve than others and am going to try it. Did read on this site about jaw fatigue causing it. I cut my bite grips in half so I can close my jaw more and it seems to help also. Of course some holding power will be lost if this is done, but it was not s problem for me. Am thinking of getting my old double hose restored to see if I still get the sensation.

 

[pepperbelly]

The back of my soft pallette also gets really dry and has caused me to gag.
I cured it by hydrating more and something I should have done a long time ago- I quit smoking.
And yes, you can throw up rhrough your reg. I chummed the reef at Coz.

 

[Wingy]

If you're looking at a smaller reg try the aqualung micron - I use one. Yes, you can vomit, just keep calm, spew, purge - swap to octo if you're going to spew more than once (I get migraines so unfortunately have spewed during 4 or 5 dives) just don't remove your reg until all gag reflex has stopped if you plan on swapping.