Conclusions
Disturbances of the chemical senses are frequent. While olfactory loss goes undetected in everyday life of most of these patients, and almost all of them continue their social and professional activities, it may severely alter the quality of life of these people. Problems in quality-of-life issues are typically reported primarily in the areas of safety and eating. Further, olfactory loss produces a feeling of insecurity, for example ones own body odors are no longer perceived. However, while this issue is often brought up in the literature, suprisingly little systematic research has been done in this area. Only during the last years have tools become available which allow the assessment of changes in quality of life brought about through olfactory disorders. Especially in light of the treatment of olfactory dysfunction, these measures appear to be of special significance.
In closing, it may be allowed to quote a more poetic description of the consequences of taste loss which, in the view of the authors, summarizes many complaints of patients with olfactory dysfunction: "Sense of smell? ... I never gave it a thought. You don't normally give it a thought. But when I lost it - it was like being struck blind. Life lost a lot of its savour - one doesn't realize how much "savour" is smell. You smell people, you smell books, you smell the city, you smell the spring - maybe not consciously, but as a rich unconscious background to everything else. My whole world was suddenly radically poorer..." (from: Sacks O., 1985, The dog beneath the skin. In: The man who mistook his wife for a hat. Summit Books / Schuster & Schuster Inc., New York) |
printable version >
