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Phantom Taste Essay

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The most common taste disorder is the phantom taste perception. This disorder is when the person feels a lingering and often disgusting tasted without having anything in their mouth. Since taste and smell are so largely connected, people often mistake a taste problem for a smell problem. Meaning, there are several causes for this disorder that don’t even have to do with the mouth but rather the nose or brain. This disorder is fairly common, around 200,000 people a year visit the doctor for taste and smell issues. Researchers believe that up to 15 percent of adults have a taste or smell disorder (Cunha, 2014). These causes for the disorder include; upper respiratory and middle ear infections, radiation from cancer therapy in the head region, exposure to insecticides, certain …show more content…

This doctor can determine the severity of the disorder by measuring the lowest concentration of taste quality. Meaning, the doctor will ask the person to compare certain tastes and describe the intensity of the taste. Other tests include the “sip, spit, and rinse” test which requires the patient to try different chemical concentrations to see how the patient responds. There will also be an oral exam to make sure there is not an issue with the taste buds themselves as well as the oral hygiene of the person (National Institute on Deafness and other Communication Disorders, 2014). This disorder needs to be taken seriously since taste helps us detect rotten food or liquids (Wolfe, Kluender, & Levi, 2015). This sense is also helpful for someone with food allergies, I myself am allergic to coconut and become nauseous when I have it. The loss of this sense can also cause us to over eat on sugar or salt to try to overcome the bad taste. This becomes a large issue for people with diabetes or high blood pressure. Actually any medical condition with a specific diet is at risk such as heart disease and stroke (GB

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