Lost or changed sense of smell

A change in your sense of smell can be unpleasant and affect how things taste. But it's not usually serious and may get better in a few weeks or months.

Causes of lost or changed sense of smell

Changes in sense of smell are most often caused by:

• illnesses such as a cold, flu or COVID-19
• sinusitis (sinus infection)
• an allergy, like hay fever
• growths in your nose (nasal polyps)

It can also be caused by some medicines and, rarely, by more serious conditions like Parkinson’s disease or epilepsy.

These problems can cause:

• loss of smell (anosmia)
• smelling things that are not there (phantosmia), like smoke or burnt toast
• reduced sense of smell (hyposmia)
• changes to how things smell (parosmia)

It's also common to lose some of your sense of smell as you get older.

Cleaning inside your nose can help

Rinsing the inside of your nose with a saltwater solution may help if your sense of smell is affected by an infection or allergy.

You can make a saltwater solution at home.

Some pharmacies sell sachets you can use to make a saltwater solution and devices to help you rinse your nose.

Find a pharmacy

If you have a high temperature or you do not feel well enough to do your normal activities, try to stay at home and avoid contact with other people until you feel better.

See a GP if:

Treatment for lost or changed sense of smell

Your sense of smell may go back to normal in a few weeks or months.

Treating the cause might help. For example, steroid nasal sprays or drops might help if you have sinusitis or nasal polyps.

Sometimes changes in sense of smell cannot be treated and may be permanent.

A treatment called smell training can help some people.

To find out more about smell training, see:

• AbScent: smell training
• Fifth Sense: smell testing and training

Important

If you have lost your sense of smell, you may not be able to smell things like gas leaks, fires and food that's gone off.

Fifth Sense has safety advice if you have anosmia