How can Smell and Taste Disorders be Treated?

How can Smell and Taste Disorders be Treated?

Treatment of smell and taste disorders usually depends on the underlying cause and the nature of the condition.

A simple method of dealing with these impairments is by stopping the medicines or 'triggers' such as smoking that cause these conditions.

The olfactory or smell disorders that can easily be treated include those that arise out of obstructing polyps or inflammation. The former may be excised, while the latter can be treated with steroids.

Olfactory dysfunction has been treated locally with corticosteroids or aqueous nasal spray or with 60mg of oral prednisone for 4 days and reducing the dosage by 10 mg each day thereafter.

Those who lose their sense of smell due to respiratory illnesses are likely to recover it with time. It has been noted that smell disorders due to head injury are likely to recover within 12 weeks of the injury, if at all they recover!

Patients with permanent dysfunction have to adapt other measures such as flavor enhancement to deal with their problem. Improving the flavor and taste of food has shown to improve the quality of life in those who have irreversible olfactory or taste dysfunction.

Most taste disorders (dysgeusias) resolve on their own with time. In the mean time, patients must be warned not to over indulge in order to compromise the lack of taste.

References:

1. Smell and Taste Disorders: A Primary Care Approach - (http://www.aafp.org/afp/2000/0115/p427.html)
2. Smell and Taste Disorders - (http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/healthlibrary/conditions/otolaryngology/smell_and_taste_disorders_chemosensory_disorders_85,P00466/)
3. Smell and Taste Disorders: A Primary Care Approach
4. STEVEN M. BROMLEY, M.D., University of Pennsylvania Smell and Taste Center, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center, New York, New York
5. Am Fam Physician. 2000 Jan 15;61(2):427-436.

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