Tips for treating taste or smell loss

If your doctor thinks that your loss of smell or taste could be due to exposure to irritants, such as fumes or chemicals, he or she may suggest ways to avoid dust, pet dander or other allergy-provoking substances. For example, someone with a dust allergy may be advised to dust with a damp cloth, vacuum more often, and to replace carpets and curtains with hard floor coverings and blinds. 

• Your doctor may occasionally prescribe antibiotics for respiratory or sinus infections due to bacteria (they don't work for viral infections), and once the infection has cleared up your sense of smell will often return.
• For persistent nasal discharge, a doctor may suggest you try steam inhalation, a vaporizer, or humidifier, to keep secretions loose and prevent the drying up of delicate membranes, especially overnight.
• Chronic middle ear infections can also affect your sense of taste, so it's important to see your doctor and get treatment.

• Your doctor can also treat mouth infections, and may advise you to see a dentist if there's any evidence of gum disease or dental problems.
• If you have dry mouth, he or she may be able to prescribe treatment to boost saliva flow and alleviate taste disturbances.

• Your doctor may advise surgery to treat nasal polyps, sometimes after pre-treatment with steroid drops to shrink them.
• Polyp removal is a very straightforward operation that can usually be done under local anaesthetic.
• Similarly, if medications have not helped in chronic sinusitis, a minor operation can be performed to drain the sinuses.
• Surgery to straighten the nose and allow normal air flow may also help to alleviate the loss of smell in someone whose nose is crooked or whose septum — the sheet of bone and cartilage tissue dividing the two nostrils — is deviated.
• The two procedures may be combined.  If there's an obvious cause for your loss of smell or taste sense, your doctor should treat it.
• Sensations often return to normal when the underlying problems are resolved.
• And some types of smell or taste loss produce only temporary disturbances that resolve by themselves even without treatment.
• But you may also be advised about other steps that may help to speed up the return of your senses after specific treatment.