Introduction
Taste disorders are rather rare in contrast to the olfactory disorders which are widespread in society. Most frequently, affected persons complain about a changed perception of tastes. For example, things are more often perceived as bitter or metallic than usual.
The different forms of taste disorders
Hypergeusia: In a hypergeusia one is particularly sensitive to taste stimuli. Normogeusia: The normogeusia is only listed for the sake of completeness. Here there is no change in the sense of taste.
It is therefore the normal state. Hypogeusia: If one suffers from hypogeusia, the sense of taste is reduced. Partial Ageusia: As the name suggests, partial ageusia only affects individual taste qualities.
Total Ageusia: In the case of total ageusia, none of the four taste qualities sweet, sour, salty and bitter can be perceived. Most of the taste disorders are qualitative in nature. These include parageusia and phantogeusia, which experience has shown to be temporary, i.e. they disappear again after a time interval of about 10 months.
Parageusia: In the context of a parageusia tastes are perceived differently. For example, something that normally tastes sweet is suddenly perceived as bitter. Most of the time, tastes are perceived as bitter, sour or metallic in the context of parageusia, which is why parageusia significantly reduces the quality of life.
Phantogeusia: A certain taste is perceived in the absence of a stimulus (for example, a food). All these impairments can occur separately, but often suffer from a combination of quantitative and qualitative taste disorders. There are many different causes that can lead to a taste disorder in which those affected perceive a bitter taste.
The most common cause is the intake of medication. Among the drugs that primarily produce a bitter taste are the antibiotic clarithromycin, the anti-diabetes drug metformin and Vit-D tablets. Furthermore, inflammations or other diseases of the gums can also lead to such a taste perception.
Furthermore, many pregnant women complain of a regular bitter taste, which disappears after a few hours. Other reasons for a bitter taste disorder are the presence of a reflux disease, a fungal infection, zinc deficiency and inadequate oral hygiene. The most common cause for the perception of a salty taste is a pH shift in the body, i.e. a change in the acid-base balance.
This is most often the case in people who are dehydrated, i.e. who have too little water in their bodies. This lack of water can be the result of too little water consumption, but also of increased excretion, as can be the case with severe diarrhea, for example. Furthermore, a salty taste can be an indication of a lack of vitamins or trace elements such as iron.
As described above, medication, especially certain antibiotics, can also lead to salty taste disorders. In addition, a disturbed function of the salivary glands can lead to an increased salinity of the saliva and thus to such a perception. It is very rare that isolated sweet taste disorders occur in humans.
The most widespread cause of such a disorder is that the general taste perception declines sharply with age; this is known as hypoguesia. However, this process is least pronounced at the taste receptors that are responsible for sweet taste. Thus, in the presence of hypoguesia in old age, it can happen that people can only taste sweet, which they then perceive as an increased sweet perception.
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