Disturbance of taste

In his daily life, a man often meets with such an incident, as a violation of taste (hypogevia).

It can be short-lived (for example, if you take too hot food in your mouth and cease to feel a taste for a while) or long-term - this may be a consequence of deeper disorders in the human body, or one of the symptoms of a serious illness.

[1], [2], [3]

Causes of the taste disorders

Such a diagnosis is put to the patient in the case when the patient is unable to ascertain the taste of any product: 

• If the damage affected the taste buds. This pathology physicians refer to transport losses. 
• If the pathology damaged the receptor cells. Doctors distribute to sensory impairments. 
• Damage to the taste caused by pathology of the afferent nerve or a malfunction in the work of the department of the central taste analyzer. This pathology can be attributed to neural changes.

What are the reasons for the violation of taste: 

• Facial nerve, complete or partial paralysis. This pathology is characterized by loss of taste perception on the tip of the tongue, paralysis of the facial muscles. The affected part of the face looks like a frozen, distorted mask. Paralysis leads to increased salivation and tear, and the blinking process is difficult. 
• Craniocerebral injury. Due to injury, apparently, the integrity of the nerve of the skull was broken. In this case, the patient is difficult to differentiate complex flavors, while the basic tastes (sweet, sour, salty and bitter) the patient normally distinguishes. Other symptoms of this pathology include nasal bleeding, nausea and dizziness, headaches and impaired visual perception. 
• Colds. Quite often this common disease is accompanied by blocking the sense of smell. And as there is swelling of the nasopharyngeal region, temperature, decrease in vitality, chills and aches, cough. 
• Cancerous growths in the oral cavity. Approximately half of the cases of oral cavity lesions occur in the posterolateral region of the tongue, which, most often, leads to necrosis of the taste buds. And as a consequence - a violation of taste. With this disease, speech is also disrupted, the process of chewing food becomes problematic, an unpleasant odor that spreads from the mouth appears. 
• Geographical language. This term was invented by doctors for inflammation of the papillae of the tongue, which is manifested by hyperemic spots of various shapes covering the tongue. Spotted drawing is somewhat like a geographical map. 
• Candidiasis or thrush. This disease manifests itself as a fungal lesion of the oral cavity and is expressed by the appearance in the sky and tongue of cream and milky spots. The patient feels a burning sensation, there are painful sensations, there is a violation of taste perception. 
• Sjogren's syndrome. This disease has genetic roots. Symptoms of its manifestation are abnormalities in the functioning of the secreting glands, such as sweat, saliva, and tear. Blocking of salivation leads to drying of the oral mucosa, a violation of taste perception, periodic infection of the cavity. A similar dryness appears on the cornea of the eye. Symptoms of this disease include nosebleeds, an increase in the size of the salivary and lacrimal glands, dry cough, swelling of the throat, and others. 
• Acute viral hepatitis. A symptom that precedes the manifestation of other signs of this disease is jaundice. At the same time there is a distortion of the olfactory perception, nausea and vomiting, loss of appetite, general weakness, muscle and head aches, joint pains and others.
• Consequences of radiation therapy. Having received a dose of radiation in the area of the neck and head when treating this terrible disease, the patient acquires a heap of pathologies and complications. Some of them are a taste disorder, dry mouth. 
• Thalamic syndrome. This pathology carries with it a change in the normal functioning of the thalamus, which often draws for itself and such a violation as the distortion of taste perception. The primary sign of the developing disease and a signal bell is a superficial and sufficiently deep loss of skin sensitivity with the manifestation of partial paralysis and significant loss of vision. In the future, sensitivity may recover and develop into hypersensitivity, for example, to pain. 
• Zinc deficiency. Laboratory studies often show a deficiency in the body of this chemical element in patients with a taste disability, which indicates its significant role in preventing hypogeucosis. Zinc deficiency pulls for itself and a glitch in the sense of smell. The patient can begin to perceive unpleasant repulsive odors as a wonderful fragrance. Other symptoms of deficiency of the element include hair loss, increased fragility of the nails, volume increase in the spleen and liver. 
• Lack of vitamin B12. This seemingly insignificant deviation in the mineral fullness of the organism can provoke not only hypogeousy (a violation of taste), but also malfunctions in the sense of smell, as well as weight loss, including anorexia, tongue edema, movement coordination disorder, dyspnea and others. 
• Medications. There are many medications that are capable, in the process of taking them, to influence the change in taste preferences. Here are some of them: penicillin, ampicillin, captopril, clarithromycin, tetracycline (antibiotics), phenytoin, carbamazepine (anticonvulsants), clomipramine, amitriptyline, nortriptyline (antidepressants), loratadine, chorpheniramine, pseudoephedrine (antiallergic drugs and medications that improve the respiratory passability of the nose ), captopril, diacarb, nitroglycerin, nifedipine (antihypertensive (pressure), cardiotropic (cardiac)) and many others. There are hundreds of them and before you start to accept this or that drug it is worth reading the instructions for use and side effects. 
• Ear surgery. Hypogevia can develop due to the unprofessional conduct of this operation or in connection with the physiological characteristics of the body. 
• Long-term smoking (especially with regard to smoking pipes). Nicotine can lead to partial atrophy of the taste buds or perversion of their work. 
• Injuries to the mouth, nose, or head. Any injury is fraught with consequences. One of such consequences can be a violation of taste and smell. 
• If hypogeousia is assumed in a small child, do not rush to conclusions. In fact, it may turn out that the baby simply does not want to eat or does not want, there is this product.

[4], [5]

Symptoms of the taste disorders

Before proceeding to a more detailed introduction to this disease, let's define the terminology. Based on clinical studies and based on complaints from patients, physicians carry the symptoms of a taste disorder into certain categories:

• General agavezia is a problem in the recognition of simple basic tastes (sweet, bitter, salty, sour tastes).
• Selective aguezia is a difficulty in recognizing certain flavors.
• Agesia specific - reduced susceptibility of taste to certain substances.
• General hypogeousia - a violation of taste sensitivity, which manifests itself in the case of all substances.
• Selective hypogesy is a violation of taste, which affects some substances.
• Dysgeusia - perverted manifestations in taste preferences. This is either an incorrect taste taste of a particular substance (often confused by the taste of sour and bitter). Either somatically imposed perception of tastes against the background of missing taste stimuli. Dysgeusia can develop both on a semantic basis, and at a pathology on the physiological or pathophysiological level.

Forms

Disturbance of smell and taste

It is quite rare cases when, for a particular disease, a patient is detected either only a violation of taste, or, unilaterally, a violation of the sense of smell. This is rather an exception to the rule. Much more often, in most diagnosed cases, the violation of smell and taste go hand in hand. Therefore, if the patient complains of loss of taste, the attending physician must also examine and sense the sense of smell.

Such an interconnected violation rarely leads to a loss of ability to work, does not pose a threat to life, but a violation of taste and smell can greatly reduce the quality of social life. Often, these changes, especially in the elderly, can lead to apathy, impaired appetite and, ultimately, to exhaustion. Loss of smell can lead to dangerous situations. For example, a patient simply does not feel the odorant (flavored perfume), which is specially mixed into natural gas. As a result, he does not recognize the leakage of gas, which can lead to tragedy.

Therefore, before stating the symptoms as harmless, the treating physician is obliged to exclude deep, systemic diseases. Since hyperosmia (hypersensitivity to smells) can manifest itself as one of the symptoms of neurotic illnesses, and dysosmia (smell of a perverted character) - with the infectious genesis of the disease.

Adequate perception of taste in humans occurs when all groups of receptors work in the process of recognition: both facial, lingopharyngeal, and receptors of the vagus nerves. If at least one of these groups, due to reasons, drops out of the survey, a person gets a taste disorder.

The taste receptors are dispersed over the surface of the oral cavity: this is the sky, and the tongue, pharynx and pharynx. Annoyed, they send a signal to the brain and already brain cells recognize this signal as a taste. Each group of receptors "responds" for one of the main tastes (salty, bitter, sweet, sour) and only complexly when working together, they are able to recognize the nuances and subtleties of flavors.

For reasons of non-pathological nature in the violation of taste and smell, doctors refer to age-related changes (decrease in the number of taste receptors), smoking that dries the mucous (the taste is better recognized in the liquid medium).

[6], [7], [8], [9], [10]

Diagnostics of the taste disorders

Before proceeding with the diagnosis, it is necessary to clearly cut off the case when the patient not only finds it difficult to determine the taste of the product, but suffers from the olfactory pathology.

First of all, a specialist tests the taste sensitivity throughout the oral cavity, determining its threshold of manifestation. The patient is asked in turn to determine the taste of citric acid (sour), table salt (salty), sugar (sweet) and quinine hydrochloride (bitter). The results of testing are the clinical picture and the scale of the lesion.

A qualitative threshold of sensations in certain linguistic zones is checked by applying a few drops of solution to separate regions of the oral cavity. The patient swallows and shares his feelings, but the characteristics are differentiated, for each site separately.

To date, there have appeared such research methods as electrometric, but they do not draw a sufficiently clear reliable picture of perception, so the diagnosis of a taste disorder is carried out in the old fashion, clinical taste tests.

As in the case of olfactory abnormalities, if there is a taste disorder, at the moment, there are no exact methods that can categorically differentiate the causes of sensory, transport or neural symptoms. In order for the doctor to be more specific in determining the cause of the neurological disorder, it is necessary to locate the site of the lesion as accurately as possible. Important information for the treating doctor gives and anamnesis of the patient. It is necessary to exclude genetically transmitted endocrine diseases.

It is also necessary to investigate the side effects of drugs if the patient undergoes treatment for another disease. In this case, the attending doctor will either assign another drug of the same action, or change the dosage of the first.

Computer tomography is also performed. It will make it possible to obtain a clinical picture of the state of the sinuses and the medulla. It is necessary to exclude or confirm the presence of systemic diseases. Diagnosis of the oral cavity helps determine the possible local causes (diseases) that can lead to a violation of taste: a malfunction in the functioning of the salivary glands, otitis, prosthetics of the teeth of the upper jaw and others.

The doctor is also interested in the presence of craniocerebral injuries in the patient, laser irradiation of the head and neck region, diseases associated with the inflammatory processes of the central nervous system and cranial nerves.

The attending physician, in the same way, establishes the chronology of the onset of the disease, trauma or surgical intervention with the appearance of a taste disorder. It is necessary to understand whether the patient has contact with toxic chemicals?

Important information for women is an upcoming menopause or a former pregnancy.

There are also laboratory studies. They are capable of (an expanded blood test) to answer whether there are foci of infectious disease or manifestations of an allergic nature in the patient's body, anemia, sugar level in the blood (diabetes mellitus). Conducting special samples will allow to recognize hepatic or renal pathology. And so on.

If there are any suspicions, the attending physician directs his patient to consult a specialist who is narrowly focused: the otolaryngologist, dentist, endocrinologist, neurologist and so on. And in the presence of craniocerebral trauma, the patient undergoes radiography, as well as CT or MRI of the head, which will help to identify intracranial changes or disorders of the cranial nerves.

If there are no obvious reasons for the violation of taste, two or four weeks later they are re-diagnosed.

[11], [12], [13]

Treatment of the taste disorders

First of all, the treatment of a taste disorder is the elimination of the cause of its appearance, that is, it is a set of measures that lead to the cupping or total eradication of the disease that led to this pathology

You can proceed to treatment not after the doctor found a taste disorder, but after the source and the cause of this pathology were completely established.

If the cause of the taste disorders is the drug that the patient takes during treatment, the treating doctor, after the patient's complaints, either changes the drug to another, the same group, or changes the dosage of the first, if it is not possible to replace it.

In any case, if the problem exists and has not yet been resolved, or the composition of secretion secretions has undergone a change, it is attributed to artificial saliva.

• "Hyposalix"

This medical product is used to moisten the mouth, which will completely or partially restore the resulting taste disorder.

The solution is sprayed in the mouth when the patient is sitting or standing. The medical balloon is alternately directed to the inner side of one or the other cheek. Spraying is done with a single push. The number of diurnal repetitions is six to eight times. The time frame is not limited, but is sprayed as needed - if the patient begins to feel dryness in the mouth. This drug is not toxic, it can be safely applied to pregnant women and small children, there are no contraindications and lactation.

If the source of the problem is bacterial and fungal diseases - the treatment protocol of such a patient will consist of drugs that can suppress the harmful pathogenic flora.

• Erythromycin

Daily dose of the drug:

• for newborns under the age of three months - 20-40 mg;
• children from four months to 18 years - 30-50 mg per kilogram of the weight of the child (two to four admission);
• adults and adolescents who crossed the threshold at 14 years - 250-500 mg (once), repeated administration no earlier than 6 hours later, daily dosage can be increased to 1-2 g, and in severe form of the disease and up to 4 g.

When taking this medication, some side abnormalities may occur: nausea, vomiting, dysbiosis and diarrhea, impaired liver and pancreatic function, and others. This drug is contraindicated in lactation, as it perfectly penetrates into breast milk and with it is able to enter the body of a newborn. As well as increased hypersensitivity to substances that are part of the medication.

• Captopril

If the cause of a taste disorder is a malfunction in the function of the kidneys, the doctor prescribes a daily dose (with not severe form of the disease) to 75-100 mg. With more severe manifestations of the disease, the daily dose is reduced initially to 12.5-25 mg and, only after a while, the attending physician gradually begins to increase the amount of the drug. For people of advanced age, the dosage is chosen individually by the doctor, beginning with the figure of 6.25 mg and it is necessary to try to keep it at this level. Reception is conducted twice a day.

This drug is not recommended for use if there is intolerance to one or more of the components that make up the drug, as well as with obvious violations of the liver and kidneys. Very carefully, only under the supervision of a doctor, to take care of people with cardiovascular diseases. It is not recommended for children under 18 years old, as well as pregnant and lactating mothers.

• Methicillin

Or the scientific name - methicillin sodium salt. It is attributed only intramuscularly.

The drug solution is prepared immediately before use. In a bottle with 1.0 g methicillin, inject 1.5 ml of special water for injections, or 0.5% solution of novocaine, or a solution of sodium chloride.

Adults are injected every four to six hours. With severe manifestations of the disease, the dosage of the drug can be increased from one to two grams.

Babies infants (up to 3 months) daily dosage - 0.5 g.

Children and adolescents under 12 years of age, this drug is attributed to the weight per kilogram of the child - 0.025 g. Injections are done after six hours.

Children who have crossed the 12-year boundary line - 0,75-1,0 g methicillin sodium salt in solution every six hours, or the dosage of adults.

The course of treatment is dictated by the severity of the disease.

Limit the use of this drug to individuals who suffer from individual penicillin intolerance.

• Ampicillin

The intake of this medication is not tied to food intake. One-time adult can take 0.5 g, the daily dosage can be indicated by a figure of 2 - 3 g. For children under the age of four, the daily dosage is calculated per kilogram of the weight of the baby and is 100-150 mg (it is divided into four to six receptions). The course of admission is individual, appointed by the attending physician and lasts from one to three weeks.

This drug is rather cunning in the context of adverse events: gastrointestinal tract (exacerbation of gastritis), stomatitis, dysbiosis, diarrhea, nausea with vomiting, sweating, abdominal pain and many others. This drug is contraindicated in children under the age of three; with increased sensitivity to the components of the drug, pregnant women and mothers breastfeeding.

Without fail, such patients are also credited with immunostimulants in order to encourage the patient's body to resist the disease.

• Immunal

The solution is prepared immediately before use, diluting the solution with a small amount of boiled water. Dosage is individual and calculated for every age. Take inwards, three times a day.

• To children from one year to six - 1 ml of a solution.
• Adolescents aged 6 to 12 years - 1.5 ml.
• Adults and adolescents who are already 12 years of age - 2.5 ml.

The medicine can be taken in tablets:

• Babies from one to four years. Rinse one tablet, dilute with a small amount of water.
• To children from four to six years - one tablet from one to two times a day.
• Teenagers from six to 12 years old - one tablet from one to three meals a day.
• Adults and adolescents over 12 years old - one tablet three to four times a day.

The course of treatment is not less than one week, but not more than eight.

Immunal is contraindicated in the case of: children under one year (with the administration of the solution) and up to four years (with the use of tablets), hypersensitivity to the components of the drug, as well as plants of the family Compositae; with tuberculosis; leukemia; HIV infection and others.

• Timalin

It is administered intramuscularly. The solution is prepared immediately before the injection: the volume of one bottle is diluted 1 to 2 ml of isotonic sodium chloride solution. The mixture is shaken until completely dissolved.

The preparation is entered:

• the carp up to a year - 5 - 20 mg. Daily.
• To a kid of one - three years - 2 mg throughout the day.
• Preschooler four - six years - 3.
• Teen seven - 14 years - 5 mg.
• For an adult, 5-20 mg daily. The general treatment course is 30 to 100 mg.

Duration of admission is from three to ten days. If necessary, after a month, treatment can be repeated.

There are no specific contraindications to this drug, except for individual intolerance to its components.

If the cause of the taste is a deficiency of zinc in the body, then the patient, apparently, will be enough to drink some kind of zinc drug. For example, zinctal.

• Zinctal

A tablet that should not be chewed or divided. Adults should take it one hour before meals three times a day, or two hours after a meal. Gradually, as the taste perception is restored, the dosage can be reduced to one tablet per day. For children older than four years, the dosage is one tablet per day. Contraindications for this drug are practically absent, except hypersensitivity to the components that make up the drug.

If it turns out that the reason for the loss of taste perception is smoking, you will have to tear out one thing: either to smoke and not to taste the delights, or quit smoking and regain the "taste of life".

Prevention

It is difficult enough to decide on preventive measures if the cause of the taste disorder can become such a huge number of different genesis and severity of diseases. And yet, prevention of taste disorders is possible.

• Maintaining a healthy lifestyle. For example, smoking or alcohol can be one of the reasons for violating taste preferences.
• Increase the amount and variety of consumed spices. Perfect training of the receptor apparatus.

Do not forget about personal hygiene:

• Brushing your teeth in the morning and evening.
• The toothbrush and paste must be matched correctly.
• Rinsing the oral cavity after each meal, which, if not removed, begins to rot, creating a fertile soil for the development of pathogenic bacteria.
• Wash hands are laid not only before meals, but after visiting the toilet, and on coming home from the street.
• Preventive visits to the dentist. Complete sanitation of the oral cavity is a good barrier in the fight against infectious and fungal diseases.
• The diet should be harmoniously balanced. It must be a sufficient amount of minerals and vitamins.
• If necessary, as prescribed by the doctor, it is necessary to take zinc and iron preparations.
• If the disease has arisen, it must be treated "without delay, and the course must be carried out to the end, thereby eliminating all causes for the appearance of a taste disorder.

[14], [15], [16]

Forecast

Treatment of a taste disorder is, first of all, the arrest of a disease or treatment until the complete recovery of the disease that caused this pathology. The prediction of a taste disorder will also be determined by the prognosis that can be given to the provoking this disorder of the disease.

Interesting things have been noticed, it turns out that people who enjoy eating food with a bitter taste, with the same pleasure consume fatty foods. This leads to the acquisition of extra pounds, and then, to atherosclerosis and other various diseases, which, in turn, can lead to a violation of taste.

Most women, in life, sweet tooth (this is their genetic predisposition), and this gene is double. Therefore, the taste palette is richer for them, and they can easily distinguish between dozens of tones and halftones of sweet. Sweetheads are less committed to fatty foods, because they are less likely to suffer from such diseases as a heart attack or stroke.

To some extent, the violation of taste - this is a fairly common phenomenon in our lives. It can occur for a short time, due to some household reasons, and can "make friends" with you for a long time. In any case, do not let the situation go by itself and do not brush it off. After all, this seemed to be a slight deviation from the norm, may be one of the symptoms of a serious illness. And only on you depends on how quickly doctors can diagnose the disease and begin its treatment. Take care of yourself and take more care of your health - this is the most valuable and expensive thing that you have!