With Valentine’s Day right around the corner, the last thing you want is for dulled taste buds to ruin an otherwise delicious meal at Bormio. Unfortunately, if you’re experiencing congestion that causes you to lose your sense of smell, your sense of taste might go with it.
How Are Taste and Smell Connected?
Your nose is full of scent receptors that collect all the smells in your environment and send information about them to your brain, which interprets them as flowers, delicious food or even sour milk. When something blocks those receptors from working as they should, you may struggle to smell things. A few conditions that can physically block the receptors include:
- Colds and flu
- Sinus infections
- Allergies
- Deviated septum
- Nasal polyps
Your tongue has similar receptors that send messages to your brain about how things taste. Your senses of taste and smell work together to identify complex flavors like sweet, salty, sour, savory or bitter. When your sense of smell is blocked, these complexities are more challenging to discern.
How Can I Recover My Sense of Smell and Taste?
Getting back your sense of smell and taste starts with identifying the underlying cause. For example, if you had a cold recently, it may still be affecting your sense of smell, which in turn dulls your taste. Once you know what’s causing the issue, you can address it:
- Colds and flu. If a cold or flu is causing your symptoms, they will likely clear within 10 days. While you have the illness, you can manage the congestion with cold and flu medication. Because the viruses are contagious, you may need to postpone your Valentine’s dinner or order takeout if you’re feeling up to it!
- Sinus infections. You can treat sinus infections with medication or try sinus irrigation for temporary relief. Most sinus infections clear within 10 days, but they aren’t contagious, so you can go out to eat if you feel well enough.
- Allergies. Winter allergies aren’t as common, but things like dust or pet dander can still cause that pesky congestion. Manage allergies with allergy medication or by avoiding the triggers that cause your symptoms.
- Deviated septum. If you have a deviated septum severe enough to cause symptoms, we may recommend a septoplasty to fix the alignment.
- Nasal polyps. You can schedule a polypectomy to remove nasal polyps that block your sense of smell.
If something is interfering with your sense of smell and taste, contact Midwest ENT Centre today to schedule an exam. We’ll help you find the underlying cause and get you started on the right treatment path for tastier dinners in no time.