Safety

Gagging someone is highly risky, as it involves a substantial risk of asphyxia if the subject's nose is blocked by the gag itself, or by some condition such as the common cold , catarrh , flu or the effects of a beating. Vomiting and choking can also block the airway. For this reason, it is usual never to leave a gagged subject alone.

In practice, few gags are effective enough to completely prevent communication. Most gags that do stop the subject from making intelligible speech still allow loud inarticulate vocal noises to call for help. Thus, a pattern of noises, such as three such noises in rapid succession, is sometimes used as a safeword by BDSM players. It is also common to use an additional non-verbal safety mechanism, such as a solid object held in the hand, which can be released by the gagged person as a sign that they are in distress, or some other non-verbal signal.

In other circumstances the safeword may not be a "word" at all, but a signal like dropping a ball or similar, or making three clear and rhythmic grunts or vigorous motions in the case of a person who is gagged or bound . A common convention of tops putting a finger in the bottom's hand is used if the bottom has become non-verbal, such as may happen as they reach subspace. In this scenario the bottom squeezes a pre-determined number of times to indicate OK.