If you lose your sense of smell and taste because of a cold or sinus infection, give yourself some time. Your smell and taste should return within a few days of the cold clearing up.
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. A treatment called "smell training" can also help some people.
Clean the Inside of Your Nose
Once the virus has run its course and some symptoms have disappeared, you may still experience anosmia. Allergies can also cause your nasal passages to swell and become inflamed. Nose cleaning can help reduce this swelling and inflammation, which can help you regain your sense of smell.
The other most common cause of smell loss is that due to an ongoing process in the nose and/or sinuses, specifically rhinitis (inflammation in the nose), nasal polyps and/or sinusitis. The history usually is that of gradual loss of smell ability proceeding to total loss.
With the proper treatment, you could be enjoying that lasagna again within a few days, or it may take up to a few weeks. Rarely, it can take several months to regain your sense of taste, but this usually results from chronic sinus infections that are harder to treat.
If you are having problems with your ability to taste or smell, you are certainly not alone. 200,000 people visit the doctor every year to address a problem with their ability to taste or smell, and sinus infections are one of the leading causes of reported loss.
The most common causes of extended loss of smell occur as a result of upper respiratory infection and sinusitis (sinus infection).
Treatment. Get enough sleep and drink plenty of warm fluids to help you get your smell and taste back. Staying hydrated and getting plenty of rest are both good ways to help power your immune system, reduce inflammation and swelling, and dilute excessive mucus build-up caused by an upper respiratory or sinus infection.
Despite their overlap, there are some notable differences between sinus infections and COVID-19 as well. Aside from what causes them, this includes another battery of more unique symptoms. A lost of smell or taste is a pretty clear indication its COVID-19, for instance.
But without your sense of smell, you wouldn't be able to detect delicate, subtle flavors. Most of the time, losing your sense of smell isn't serious. But there are instances in which anosmia indicates other, more serious health conditions.
Intranasal zinc products, decongestant nose sprays, and certain oral drugs, such as nifedipine and phenothiazines, are examples of drugs that may cause permanent loss of smell.
Sinuses become infected when small particles such as dust, pollen, or animal dander enter the nasal passages and become trapped. This can cause inflammation, which leads to a buildup of mucus and bacteria in the sinuses. As the bacteria and mucus accumulate, they produce a foul odor that can smell like rotten eggs.
Illness or Infection
Anything that irritates and inflames the inner lining of your nose and makes it feel stuffy, runny, itchy, or drippy can affect your senses of smell and taste. This includes the common cold, sinus infections, allergies, sneezing, congestion, the flu, and COVID-19.
Antibiotics are not needed for many sinus infections. Most sinus infections usually get better on their own without antibiotics. When antibiotics aren't needed, they won't help you, and their side effects could still cause harm. Side effects can range from mild reactions, like a rash, to more serious health problems.
In comparison to sinusitis, COVID-19 is more likely to cause lung-related symptoms, especially cough, difficulty breathing, and chest pain. It's also more likely to cause a fever. In addition, loss of taste or smell is more likely to go along with COVID-19.
Smell strong-smelling odours (like the ones you briefly eliminated), such as ground coffee, spices, mint, and eucalyptus. The molecules in essential oils taken from plants can also be used for olfactory training.
A stuffy nose from a cold is a common cause for a partial, temporary loss of smell. A blockage in the nasal passages caused by a polyp or a nasal fracture also is a common cause.
Inside the nose
Sometimes there is a phsyical blockage, but if your nostrils are clear then it's possible the olfactory epithelium has been damaged in some way, perhaps as a result of a virus.
An “acute” sinus infection lasts anywhere from ten days up to eight weeks. A “chronic” infection lasts even longer. It is ongoing — it may seem like it's improving, and then it comes right back as bad as it was at first. Chronic sinus infections may drag on for months at a time.
Very rarely, untreated sinus infections can lead to life-threatening infections. This happens if bacteria or fungi spread to your brain, eyes or nearby bone.
Viral infections are spread the same way as bacterial infections. The difference is that the viral infection will start to improve after 5 to 7 days of the initial onset of the symptoms. There is no one definitive way for a doctor to determine if you have a bacterial or viral sinus infection based on symptoms alone.
Acute sinusitis usually starts with cold-like symptoms such as a runny, stuffy nose and facial pain. It may start suddenly and last 2 to 4 weeks. Subacute sinusitis usually lasts 4 to 12 weeks. Chronic sinusitis symptoms last 12 weeks or longer.