I usually let er rip but if in polite company I might stifle a sneeze by pressing my tongue upwards. This clamps the pressure inside. I have been told a long time ago that this was harmful.
Serious complications of sneeze-stifling are rare (though there are case reports of things like laryngeal or eardrum rupture).
If you’re worried about it, go ahead and sneeze - but if at all possible have a tissue handy (or your hand if nothing else is handy) and sneeze into that, rather than spraying potential pathogens onto those around you or the salad bar.
I think modern etiquette is to sneeze into your elbow; on the grounds that you go around touching other things (and sometimes people) with your hands, but you don’t generally do so with the inside of your elbow.
The deadly effects of suppressing a sneeze was gospel truth when I was a kid. So was swallowing your gum and farting in the bathtub.
And og help the poor soul who goes for a swim within an hour of having eaten.
mmm
A couple times I sneezed so hard while keeping my mouth closed that I split my lower lip.
I sneeze very loud. I ‘let er rip’. My wife thinks there is something wrong with me. She covers her ears. I think she’s being a tad bit over dramatic.
And from the archives:
I think I just lost another irony meter.
You beat me to it.
I have been stifling my sneezes for a long as I can remember, partly prompted by my annoyance with loud sneezers.
No firsthand knowledge, but the concept of the stifled-sneeze-induced shart comes to mind
When I sneeze, it’s usually multiple times in a row, especially after eating. Sometimes as many as nine or ten times.