Loss of Taste and Smell-Consequences and Classification

The senses of smell and taste are termed chemical senses because they detect chemical stimuli and encode chemosensory information into neural signals. A variety of diagnostic terms have been used to describe smell and taste disorders. Standard classification terms for olfactory disorders are anosmia (absence of smell), hyposmia (diminished sensitivity of smell), and dysosmia (distortion of normal smell). Phantosmia, a type of dysosmia, refers to perception odor in absence of an odor stimulus, and parosmia refers to distortion of odor perception when an odor is present. For taste, diagnostic terms include ageusia (absence of taste), hypogeusia (diminished sensitivity of taste), and dysgeusia (distortion of normal taste). (more…)