It is extremely common for a dentist to have a patient in the dental chair who is extremely apprehensive of having alginate impressions taken of their teeth/mouth and they also have an excessive gag reflex. When a dentist is treating these patients, there is no one magic technique that will enable you to take an impression however it is a mixture of different techniques which give an overall positive experience.
One of the worst things that a dentist can do is to take some substandard alginate impressions. As a consequence, the final prosthesis or restoration will also be substandard. Worse still, the restoration will probably not even fit a mouth and retakes will be necessary. When is necessary to retake another impression, the same problems arise because the patient still has an excessive gag reflex and the mistakes or similar are likely to be simply repeated. Another consequence is that the patient will lose confidence in the dentist and this can cause a complaint to be made to the dentist directly or worse still to an outside body.
Needless to say, if a patient does have an excessive gag reflex, it should be noted down in the dental records. If it is noted down clearly and obviously in the dental records, it will be apparent to yourself or even if the patient goes and sees another dentist as to potential problems. Finally, if a patient did make a complaint to an outside body, there may be some form of mitigation possible because it is difficult to carry out perfect work in a patient with an excessive gag reflex.
Dr Muzzafar Zaman 