Mouth Diseases

Loss of taste

07/06/2006

Question:

I recently had to have surgery on my neck.. when i got home i lost some of my sense of taste. this happened to me once before after surgery.
how can this be treated? the first time they used steroids to get my taste back.. have you ever heard of this happening to anyone else.. everyone thinks im just crazy.

Answer:

While you did not mention your age or sex, a condition known as burning mouth syndrome often will have taste disturbances, including decreased ability to taste. This condition occurs most frequently in peri-menopausal and post-menopausal women. It often waxes and wanes in severity, and it has not been associated with any particular preceding event.

If this is part of burning mouth syndrome, the fact that the loss of taste returned after the steroids was probably coincidental - the taste sensation in all likelihood would have returned anyhow.

More information about burning mouth syndrome can be found at the website www.aaomp.org.

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Response by:

Carl M. Allen, DDS, MSD
Professor & Director, Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery and Pathology
Dental Faculty Practice
Section of Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology
College of Dentistry
The Ohio State University