Taste dysfunction can significantly impact your health and quality of life. The ability to perceive sweet, sour, salty, bitter and brothy sensations is not only important for eating and nutrition, but also for preparing your digestive system to properly digest the foods that you eat.
People can have various types of taste dysfunction. Hypogeusia is the reduced ability to detect sweet, sour, bitter, or salty sensations. Ageusia is the complete loss of the ability to taste. Dysgusia is a change in the normal perception of taste, such as distortion of familiar tastes, or when something that normally tastes pleasant changes to tasting bad. Phantogusia is the sensation of taste that is not present (similar to a hallucination). An example of phantogusia is the experience of a strong salty taste when nothing is in the mouth.Â
The following list includes some of the underlying causes. It is important to be evaluated with medical tools to understand these causes. Some of these medical tools include electrogustometry and sampling strips of paper with various concentrations of different tastes.
- Aging
- Viruses such as ones which cause Bell’s Palsy
- Oral Cancers
- Hormonal disturbances Exposure to pesticides, insecticides, or solvents
- Medications, such as blood pressure medications
- Radiation for treatment of head and neck cancers
Both taste and smell disorders are diagnosed by medical professionals. Click the search button below to find a practitioner to determine the extent of your smell or taste disorder.
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Sensonics International (also known as Sensonics Inc.) discloses the following requirements for our Referral System. This free service provides a list of physicians who have been noted to administer smell and taste tests. Sensonics does not warrant, whether expressed or implied, that the Referral System is accurate or complete. Sensonics does not recommend or endorse any physician included in the Referral System for any purpose, nor is Sensonics’ Referral System a tool for verifying a specific physician’s credentials or qualifications. It is your responsibility to select a physician appropriate for your needs and you assume full responsibility for your interactions with any physician you contact through the Sensonics Referral System. Sensonics is not responsible for the medical care or advice given by any participating physician you choose to contact. We, in no way, endorse their practice nor their abilities as medical practitioners. We are therefore not liable for direct or indirect costs that may arise from patient-provider interactions. The health information contained in these Services is general in nature and is not a substitute for professional health care. It is not meant to replace the advice of health care professionals. If you have specific health care needs, or for complete health information, please see a doctor or other health care provider.