ALTERED TASTE – AN INSIGHT

Abstract

This review article mainly aims in highlighting the importance of taste and its alteration due to various diseases that occur in the body. Taste is a sensation which is perceived due to the presence of taste buds on the dorsum of the tongue and sometimes in other parts of the oral cavity. The normal mechanism is hampered when neurological, endocrine, nutritional disorders like Bell’s palsy, cancer, epilepsy, hypothyroidism etc. occur in the body. In this article we are attempting to discuss the common causes of taste alteration in patients seen by the dentists and the adverse effects that the patients experience and lay emphasis on the importance of these disorders and the patients’ perception about taste alteration or loss.