Does anyone have advice on getting Smell & Taste back!?!

[Insaneinthemembrain]

When I had my accident TBI I lost my sense of smell and taste. I can taste a little but can smell absolutely nothing at all? Does anyone else have these symptoms and any suggestions on how I get it back?!

thanks in advance!

[Hidden]

Hi, here's some info from the Headway website headway.org.uk/about-brain-...

Hope that helps.

[MaryH75]

Hi I am exactly the small. Some taste but absolutely no smell. Only discovered 3 weeks after I was discharged. I'm currently 11 months post TBI so early days according to the doctors. I feel for you as I'm finding it really difficult x

[headwayuk Partner Headway]

Hello, I'd like to also recommend the charity fifthsense.org.uk/, they are a wonderful organisation set up to support people with Anosmia. Best wishes, Gemma

[Insaneinthemembrain in reply to headwayuk]

Thank you I will have a read of that!

[vampress]

I was the same when I first had my Injury. I was told it was just a waiting game and that they couldn't say if or when it would come back. When it did start coming back, some of the smells were wrong. Bacon smelt like rosemary, body odour smelt like spicy chicken and weed smelt like urine! I also noticed that it was the subtle smells that came back first. I couldn't smell the cinnamon in a bathbomb, but I could smell the neroli that no one else could. 7 years and body odour still smells like spicy chicken and some strong smells I cant smell at all. But its different for everyone.

[Insaneinthemembrain in reply to vampress]

Oh goodness! I guess everything is a bit confused after such a bang.. would love to smell something! Patience I guess ☹️

[Painting-girl]

I lost my sense of smell after Covid last year, and the advice is to keep sniffing at strong scents and imagine them, to sort of retrain the brain. I used essential oils, and coffee for example. There's some research that it works well while you sleep. My sense of smell is back now, but not totally completely. Apparently Covid doesn't destroy the actual cells that sense smell, but just knocks out the brain connection - so I am guessing this could be similar to a BI?

[4158Bear]

also lost my sense of smell and consequently reduced taste due to injury 20 years ago. Occasionally think I can smell a little but really no change I’m afraid. Don’t notice the taste anymore can still enjoy food and drink. Good luck

[Forty-something]

my sense of taste and smell is still all over the place, 5.5 years later 🙄 I don’t enjoy cooking or eating anymore and struggle daily with it. I have cereal in the morning and bits here and there. U stop enjoying mealtime, even shopping for food is hard. Sometimes I can taste one ingredient in a dish, sometimes it tastes like something else 🤷🏻‍♀️ 😂 and smells…god!!!! I smell what’s not there 🤦🏻‍♀️ no help I know but it’s a common problem after TBI sadly

[TBI_Friday]

I spent some time at DMRC Stanford Hall under the neuro department, they did share an idea of how to slowly retrain your brain into sending the correct signals regarding smelly, I'll do my best to explain...

Get a family member or friend to put a very unique and distinctively strong product into a small tin (like shot glass size) with cotton wool (things like cinnamon or strong coffee) do this with 6 items and label the tins 1 to 6. Get your family member or friend to write down on a piece of paper what each number is (1 is coffee, 2 is cinnamon etc). But the key thing is for them not to tell you what each tin contains. They pass you a tin, you close your eyes and take slow deep sniffs for like 30 seconds and you write down what you think it is, after doing each 6 tins and writing down what you think it is your friend then tells you what each one is and commit it to memory. Repeat this each day but every time your friend doesn't tell you which numbered tin they give you, you can also switch up the products if you start to recognise the smells.

I tried this for like a month and I think it helped somewhat, but still for me things like bread, chips and starchy foods still smell and taste like battery acid.