It’s been a bit since we’ve posted anything. Monkey! has been busy with work and needed some downtime before returning to posting.
To start, today we’re going to talk about ball gag sizes. There are a dizzying variety of sizes and each person is different in how they can tolerate various sizes for any length of time and the aesthetics of the gag.
The gags we are discussing today are specifically silicone ball gags from Pleasure Paradox. They have interchangeable straps (good for cleaning) and a wide variety of colors and sizes. We’ve gotten a lot of mileage out of these over the years and we highly recommend them. They even send you a brochure that helps with sizing!
NOTE: Pleasure Paradox is not sponsoring this post. We just really like their products and the sizing options make this post possible.
As a person with a ball gag fetish and a whole lot of kinks around mouths and gags, I’ve always found it frustrating exactly how HARD it is to actually know which gag to order. Nobody wants to order one of each size until you find the right one. I hope this post helps but, realistically, the best I can do is tell you how the sizes I have available relate to MO.
To start with, it’s probably helpful to know that MO’s mouth is 2.15″ when fully open. I know because I measured with calipers.
Size Comparison
Starting with aesthetics, The four following pictures show the difference in size of 1.75″, 1.875″, 2.0″, and 2.25″ balls.
MO Notes:
This (2.0″) is about the perfect size for me. I can go larger, but it’s more of a challenge just to endure it, so it becomes my main focus rather than the scene. To me, a good fit presses against the hard palate (the hard part of the roof of your mouth), but I can also bite down on it.
MO Notes:
Pro-tip: Make sure your lip does not get caught between your teeth and the gag or the strap. That becomes painful quickly. You might have to do a bit of an open-mouthed smile when putting on the gag.
From an aesthetics point of view and reasonable effectiveness of actually, you know, effectively gagging MO… the 2.0″ is the sweet spot. It’s something she can endure for a significant period of time while still being effective.
Endurance
Speaking of endurance, within a reasonable scene period, we’ve never reached the end of MO’s endurance while wearing the 2.0″ ball gag.
The 2.25″ gag, however…
The graph above shows several attempts over a couple of weeks to see how long MO could endure the 2.25″ ball gag. After the 20 minute trial, you can see a steep drop off in endurance. It took several days for her jaw to recover after pushing herself too hard on that trial!
MO Notes:
You may have found your sweet spot in sizing when you find yourself dribbling drool a lot. If it’s a bit small, you can close your lips around it and swallow, and if it’s too big it will form its own seal. This is up to preference, of course.
TMJ Considerations
Which brings us to my lest favorite topic of gags… It seems a plurality, if not a majority, of bottoms I have played with have some form of TMJ or other endurance limiting factors when playing with ball gags. This means severe discomfort very quickly for these bottoms.
I haven’t been able to determine whether pushing this limit with someone that experiences early jaw pain is safe. I also haven’t been able to determine whether endurance can be increased over time (such as the test with MO above). I can only suggest being safe and erring on the side of caution!
We’ll have more gag posts about harness gags, and panel gags, and dental gags, and inflatable gags, and… stay tuned!
I just happened to come across this looking for something else for a friend and would like to thank you for the promotion. And a quick follow up, since this was written we now have 17 sizes and 14 colors (although as I write this I just got the yellow color additive in and have not filled out all the sizes in that color yet). Also in summer 2020, production moved in house, they are now produced in Virginia, USA.
But the more important reason for writing is to mention some additional feedback on TMJ.
As I work with a lot of models, the usual problem is the ignorant photographers trying to stuff the largest possible ball into the model’s mouth. The problem is constantly doing this can trigger a permanent serious TMJ problem and then no ball gag can be warn for even a short period.
I know some folks that have built up to the larger sizes, but they take their time and stop shortly after the jaw starts to bother them. Most people can eventually go up a couple sizes larger than the starting optimum size, but from a practical standpoint that is about it.
If you are having jaw problems, I always recommend dropping down a size or two at least temporarily.
And that brings me to one more important point, different things can affect people’s tolerances, so what is fine one day, may not be the next. It is important to always remember that. Usually though if you have the correct size ball, it is usually only time that has to be the variable.
Just what I have learned from selling, and also taking pictures of people in, Ball Gags.