Mouth gag

What is a mouth gag?

A mouth gag (in English simply a gag) is an object that fills or covers the mouth, so that intelligible speech no longer works. The Dutch word mondknevel is a compound of mond, mouth, and knevel, and so says exactly where the thing goes. In practice a mouth gag is homemade as often as it is bought.

Where the Dutch word mondknevel comes from

From Dutch itself, as a compound.

The second part is knevel, a word that for centuries had nothing to do with a mouth; it meant a small piece of wood to fasten something with. Put mond in front, and the meaning shuts tight at once. That is why a Dutch speaker almost always types mondknevel and not knevel.

Why people use a mouth gag

For the moment where explaining stops.

As long as you can talk you can set something straight or turn it into a joke. With a mouth gag that way out falls away and only your body is left to say anything with. For the other person it turns the role of listener into that of someone who has to watch.

A mouth gag makes agreements more important, not less. Whatever you might still have wanted to say halfway through has to come out before the gag goes in.

What people use as a mouth gag

Usually something from around the house, and that is exactly the risky category.

1. Tape over the mouth. Fast and cheap, but tape does not come off in one motion and sticks unpredictably on skin cream.
2. A cloth or scarf between the teeth. Stays put and is easy to remove, provided the end hangs outside the mouth.
3. A wad of cloth in the mouth. The most dangerous form, because a loose piece of cloth can slip back.
4. A bought ball or bar. A ballgag or bitgag has a strap and is therefore attached to something you can pull back.

That third point is not theory. According to the StatPearls monograph Foreign Body Airway Obstruction, blockage of the airway by a foreign object is one of the leading causes of serious accidents, and with severe oxygen shortage it moves quickly toward unconsciousness. So always leave a wad hanging partly outside the mouth.

Why a mouth gag makes you drool

Because your salivary glands simply keep working while swallowing no longer works.

Ghannam and Singh note in the StatPearls monograph Anatomy, Head and Neck, Salivary Glands that human salivary glands produce half a liter to one and a half liters of saliva a day, which makes chewing, swallowing and speaking possible. With something between your jaws, that drainage is disrupted while the production keeps going. So put a towel underneath and count on it; it is no sign that something is going wrong.

Where this fits on this site

If you want to try this without having to watch the safety side yourself, the hand signal is the first thing we agree on and the gag goes in last. What else gets talked through beforehand is on the BDSM date.

Sources

• Foreign Body Airway Obstruction. Haley Dodson, Sanjeev Sharma & Jeffrey Cook, StatPearls Publishing, NCBI Bookshelf (NBK553186), updated 17 July 2024. Provides that blockage of the airway by a foreign object is one of the leading causes of serious accidents; that the picture starts with sudden choking or the feeling that something is stuck, with coughing, gagging or stridor; and that severe hypoxia leads to loss of consciousness.
• Anatomy, Head and Neck, Salivary Glands. Mousa G. Ghannam & Paramvir Singh, StatPearls Publishing, NCBI Bookshelf (NBK538325), updated 29 May 2023. Provides that human salivary glands produce between 0.5 and 1.5 liters of saliva a day and that this saliva makes chewing, swallowing and speaking possible, lubricates the oral mucosa and forms the medium in which taste is perceived.

This page is tiered as a tool term but does not use the source exemption: the moment a page claims anything about choking or about the body, a source belongs with it.

Related terms

A mouth gag is the Dutch name for what falls under gag, the page with the full breakdown by build type.

• Gag. The collective name, with the three build types and the safety rules.
• Knevel. The second part of this word, with eight centuries of history and a criminal-law tail.
• Ballgag. The bought standard form, and the reason this word brings a ball to mind for most people.
• Bitgag. The version you don’t fill but lay between the molars.
• Bondage. The practice this gear rarely stands apart from.
• Check-in. How you signal, without a voice, that it is still going well.
• Jaw clamp. The reverse case, which holds the mouth open instead.
• Speech ban. The agreement that reaches the same thing without anything going in your mouth.