Symptoms and effects of anosmia

A person may be unable to detect perfume, cooking aromas, smoke, or body odours. If faint smells remain, the more accurate term may be hyposmia, which means reduced smell.

Meals can seem flat because aroma contributes to flavour, while basic tastes detected by the tongue may remain. Appetite and enjoyment of food may fall, and a person may add more salt or sugar while trying to increase flavour.

Associated symptoms depend on the cause. A blocked or runny nose, sneezing, facial pressure, or thick discharge can accompany nasal inflammation. Loss after a viral illness may occur without blockage. Parosmia causes real odours to smell distorted, and phantosmia causes an odour sensation without an external source.

Write down when smell changed, whether it happened abruptly or gradually, and whether one nostril or both seem affected. Include recent respiratory symptoms, allergy flares, facial pain, head injury, smoke exposure, and medicine changes.

Use mild familiar scents if checking function; never sniff bleach, ammonia, fuel, or another irritating chemical. Check smoke and gas alarms and use food dates rather than smell alone to judge safety.

A clinician can help distinguish complete loss from reduced or distorted smell and look for nasal blockage or another contributing problem.

Seek emergency help when sudden smell loss occurs with facial droop, weakness or numbness on one side, difficulty speaking, confusion, seizure, severe sudden headache, loss of consciousness, or breathing difficulty.

Arrange prompt assessment after a head injury or for one-sided obstruction, repeated nosebleeds, swelling around an eye, vision changes, severe facial pain, or worsening headache. Persistent unexplained smell loss also merits a routine clinical review.

Tell the clinician whether smell is absent, merely weaker, distorted, or present when no source exists. Ask whether the pattern suggests nasal blockage or a change in smell signalling, what examination is appropriate, and how to protect nutrition and household safety while the symptom continues.