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Traumatic Anosmia Then Phantom Smells, Tastes

Posted By Tracymarie (Grand Rapids, Mi) on 12/16/2012

I completely lost my sense of smell three months ago due to head trauma. My doctor says it is not going to come back because I have sheared my olfactory nerves.

I had gotten used to not smelling but then I developed a sweet-smoky phantom sense in my nose, but I was not smelling anything and it followed me everywhere.

Then, that went away and now I "smell" a chemical smell and this has affected my taste sensors. I have read online and saw that it might be my brain sending me caution signals because the nerves have been sheared. It makes my coffee taste like moonshine alcohol or some kind of chemical salt, and it the smell feels like a burn.

Please, I am desperate for this to end and if anyone has any idea what this is about I would be gracious. I'm looking for people that have experienced this and knows if it stops.

Replied by Aclo (Los Angeles, Ca, USA) on 07/24/2013

I lost my sense of smell from traumatic head injury almost 2 years ago. A few months after began my "phantom smells". They are never pleasant, almost always a chameical or burning smell (the most recent, I could only describe as "burning sweat"), and last several weeks to several months at a time but always changing. My anosmia specialist said that my olfactory nerves were not shorn in the accident, but if I didn't get my sense of smell back after a year, that I probably wouldn't. His advice was to live with it, check expiration dates on dairy products, and get smoke natural gas detectors.

Replied by Balton (San Diego, Ca) on 04/08/2013

I have experienced the exact same phenomenon. I had a traumatic brain injury 2 months ago and lost my sense of smell and taste, presumably due to shearing of the olfactory nerve. However within recent weeks, I frequently experience phantom smell/taste that seems to be a mix between a chemical and malt. My neurologist said it could be a mild form of seizure or possibly the olfactory nerve trying to repair itself.

Replied by Patrick (Savannah, GA) on 06/02/2022

Hi!

I have been having phantosmia as well for couple of months now. It's a cigarette smell and I'm losing my mind. Drs don't seem to understand or do anything. I have been trying many things. I saw this was way back in 2012! Do you have anything of an update? God bless

Replied by Patrick (Savannah GA) on 06/02/2022

Yeah, they say it may come back it may not. But they do not understand and do not listen about the phantosmias. I smell cigarette smoke and it's going to drive me crazy, literally. Maybe even to the point of hurting myself if it doesn't stop.

Replied by mmsg (somewhere, europe) on 06/03/2022
Patrick, just because it has a fancy name and docs dunno how to cure it, doesn't mean it has to upset you. That won't help much. Trying different ideas might help. I would begin with trying Bill Munro's h2o2 inhalation, or any of the variations of it.

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