How To Get Taste Back During Allergies

How to Get Your Sense of Smell and Taste Back

Posted on: 07 April, 2021

Medical Center ENT - Smell Retraining

Loss of smell and taste are symptoms that have been observed with viral upper respiratory infections in the past, and they've been shown to appear much more frequently in people infected by COVID-19. While there are no proven medical therapies thusfar to aid in reacquiring smell and taste lost from COVID-19, there are studies showing recovery from loss of smell from other viruses. Recovery appears to be improved by smell re-training and nasal steroids.

Summary of research articles:

Smell training helps speed recovery in some patients
Smell training for many months works better than short-term training. Even past one year
Changing to different scents after 12 weeks may help more
Using nasal steroid sprays regularly while undergoing smell training helps improve further

Examples of steroid sprays: Flonase/fluticasone, Nasocort/triamcinolone, Nasonex/mometasone, Rhinocort/budesonide

Instructions:

Obtain a smell training kit with at least 4 scents. This can be purchased online or made yourself.

Examples:

Open the container, hold it under the nose, and breathe slowly and deeply for 15 seconds, with a 15 second break between scents.

Abscent.org (abscent.org/learn-us/smell-training; abscent.org/shop/kits)
Amazon.com: "smell training kit" (The Smell Project Smell Training Kit, Essential Oils)
Smell Re-training:
- Focus on remembering what the scent smelled like before their loss of smell
- Engage in the smell re-training twice a day for the training period
- Change the four smells to four different smells after 3-4 months
- Use nasal steroid spray every day while engaging in re-training

The first studies used these scents: flowery (rose), fruity (lemon), aromatic (cloves), and resinous (eucalyptus)

After 12 weeks, change the scents. Examples: menthol, thyme, tangerine, and jasmine

After 12 more weeks, change again. Examples: green tea, bergamot, rosemary, and gardenia

Dr. Marcus Hershey, M.D.