“There’s some good evidence showing the virus might injure the supporting cells around the nerves. “The SARS-CoV-2 virus might not affect the olfactory nerves directly,” Smith said.
While they have different nerves, a portion of our “taste buds” activate when a food’s flavor bypasses the palate and goes into the nasal cavity, where it gets processed by the olfactory nerves. Our sense of taste is closely tied to our sense of smell.
But we’re really in our infancy of understanding all the communications that occur within this neural network in our brain,” Smith said.
“Many people have had the experience of smelling something over the holiday season that reminds us of our childhoods. From there, the olfactory nerves are stimulated, sending information to different regions of the brain for processing, such as those that deal with emotions or memory. These molecules get funneled up the nose into the narrowest portion of the nasal cavity. The skull bone contains nerve fibers called olfactory nerves, which sit at the top of the nasal cavity and receive air, along with any scented molecules the air carries. The smelling process begins at the base of the skull, where the skull bones meet the nasal cavity. Olfactory system, including nasal cavity, frontal sinus, olfactory bulb and nerve. He says the symptom falls into one of three categories: 1 – total loss (anosmia), 2 – partial loss (hyposmia) or 3 – distorted sense of smell (parosmia). Smith has spent decades treating patients who lost their sense of smell due to viral illnesses. But that still leaves up to 20% of people who have an ongoing disturbance in their sense of smell.”ĭr. “We found that probably 80% of those patients who have a loss or distortion of their sense of smell will recover that sense about one to three months after the COVID-19 infection has resolved. Timothy Smith, ear, nose and throat specialist at Oregon Health & Science University. “Millions of people around the globe have suffered this symptom during the pandemic,” said Dr. Loss of smell, even temporarily, was one of the primary indicators of a COVID-19 infection early in the pandemic. Our understanding of long-COVID is still evolving, and scientists and doctors are studying the individual symptoms and how to support people affected by them. Long COVID can affect vaccinated or unvaccinated individuals, regardless of the severity of infection. This makes loss of smell a common symptom of long COVID-19. It can also crop up after the infection goes away. It can occur during the illness and linger for weeks, months or years. One of the most curious symptoms of COVID-19 is loss of smell.
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