Nose Problems

Septum correction

Smell and Taste Disorders

Generally, when people are in their 50s, the ability to smell and to taste starts to diminish gradually. In about 40% of older people, the ability to smell is significantly reduced.

Hyposmia and Anosmia
A reduced ability to smell (hyposmia) and loss of smell (anosmia) are the most common disorders of smell and taste. Because distinguishing one flavor from another is based largely on smell, people often first notice that their ability to smell is reduced when their food seems tasteless.

The ability to smell can be affected by changes in the nose, in the nerves leading from the nose to the brain, or in the brain. For example, if nasal passages are stuffed up from a common cold, the ability to smell may be reduced because odors are prevented from reaching the smell receptors (specialized nerve cells in the mucous membrane lining the nose). Because the ability to smell affects taste, food often does not taste right to people with colds. Smell receptors can be temporarily damaged by the influenza (flu) virus. Some people cannot smell or taste for several days or even weeks after a bout of the flu, and rarely, loss of smell or taste becomes permanent.

Occasionally, serious infections of the nasal sinuses or radiation therapy for cancer causes a loss of smell or taste that lasts for months or even becomes permanent. These conditions can damage or destroy smell receptors.

Head Injury
The most common cause of permanent loss of smell is a head injury, as often occurs in a car accident. Permanent loss of smell results when fibers of the olfactory nerves—the pair of cranial nerves that connect smell receptors to the brain—are damaged or sheared at the roof of the nasal cavity. The roof of the nasal cavity is formed by a bone (cribriform plate) that separates the brain from the nasal cavity. Damage to the olfactory nerves can also result from fractures of the cribriform plate or tumors near this bone. Very few people are born without a sense of smell.