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Smell
The sense of smell is known as olfaction and is the detection of chemicals, generally at very low concentrations, dissolved in the air. These are called odours.
Humans have 347 functional odour receptor genes and around 40 million olfactory receptor neurons, which are found in the olfactory epithelium in the nasal cavity. Basically these nerves function like a key-lock system meaning that if the airborne molecules of a chemical fit the profile of the nerve then the nerve cell will respond and an odour will be smelt. The human tongue can only distinguish around six distinct types of taste, e.g. bitter, sweet, salt, sour, savoury and fatty, but the nose can distinguish hundreds of substances. It is the link between taste and smell that allows us to appreciate the flavour of things and it is for this reason that problems arising from loss of smell can be so debilitating to people's lives.
There are four major smell disorders:
- anosmia
- hyposmia
- phantosmia
- dysosmia
Evoked Response Olfactometry
Olfactory Testing UPSIT
This test is sensitive to a wide range of smell deficits, including sinusitis. It consists of four envelope-sized booklets, each containing ten 'scratch and sniff' odorants. You release the smells by scratching the strip with a pencil tip and should sniff the label immediately. Above each strip is a multiple-choice question with four responses indicating what you think the odour smells like. You must mark one of these, even if no smell is perceived.
Mini Olfactory UPSIT
ENT Diagnostics
Airway
Allergy
Balance
Hearing
Path
Smell
Voice
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