My wife, 56, has had a strange smell in her nose for some time now. Other people around her don’t smell anything, but she experiences the smell as very irritating and can’t tell what it smells like. What could be causing this?
Woman (56)
Joris Bartstra, journalist with medical diploma
The sensation of smells or tastes is provided by many nerve cells that give a kind of compound stimulus. Similar to the pixels on a photo or computer screen. If nerve cells fail, this causes a disturbed ‘odor image’. This failure is usually caused by a virus infection. For example, a cold can lead to a loss of sense of smell, or to a disturbed sense of smell due to an incomplete recovery. Smoking and some medications can also damage odorous nerve cells. Because there are also rarer causes, such as infections or growths in the area of the nose and sinuses, I would still have it looked at by a doctor. Especially if the symptoms change or get worse.
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