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Taste & Smell Disorders
Smell and taste disorders can cause significant detriment to a patient’s quality of life. Patients may have different alterations of how their smell and taste are affected and these disorders may come from a variety of different sources.
Symptoms of a smell disorder can include:
- Decreased smell (microsmia)
- A foul sense only you can smell (parosmia/phantosmia)
- Complete loss of smell (anosmia)
Smell disorders may be caused by
- Inflammation of the nose and paranasal sinuses due to:
- Chronic sinus inflammation
- Nasal polyps
- Allergies
- Previous upper respiratory infection that may or may not be related to COVID-19
- Trauma to the head and/or face
- Certain neurological conditions
- Exposure to certain chemicals, metals, or toxins
Symptoms of a taste disorder can include
- Decreased overall sense of taste (dysgeusia)
- Complete loss of taste (ageusia)
- Altered sense of taste that is inappropriately sweet, sour, salty, bitter, or metallic (dysgeusia)
- Unpleasant taste that occurs outside of eating (phantogeusia)
Taste disorders may be caused by
- Infection or inflammation in the throat or mouth
- Vitamin or mineral deficiency
- Certain neurological, endocrine, or metabolic conditions
- Exposure to certain chemicals, metals, or toxins
