Lost sense of smell after double jaw surgery

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EmilyTravels
Posts: 476
Joined: Tue Jul 11, 2017 6:01 am

Re: Lost sense of smell after double jaw surgery

#16 Post by EmilyTravels »

I have never heard of Sniffin' Sticks, but I can imagine. Sometimes I think my sense of smell is too intense; chemically or plastic-y smells really bother me. We have a memory foam mattress topper that my husband can't smell at all, but it smells like chemicals to me. Really upleasant!

On the other hand, you'd hate to miss out on lovely smells, like cookies baking or lovely flowers blooming. I hope you get your sense of smell back 100%. It may just be a very long journey. :(

bvanital
Posts: 1
Joined: Mon Apr 01, 2019 11:40 pm

Re: Lost sense of smell after double jaw surgery

#17 Post by bvanital »

Hello there!

After reading through your struggles with trying to regain your sense of smell, I've grown quite scared and more curious!

I recently had a severe traumatic jaw injury from a skiing accident and underwent reconstructive surgery. I now have two titanium plates on my chin holding together a really nasty fracture and have a few other fractures on each side of my jaw sort of near my ears. In order to heal the fractures on the side, they had to wire my jaw shut for a while.

I am currently 3 weeks into shut mouth mode and I haven't had my sense of smell or taste since surgery. Last time I had a check-up appointment, I brought up the fact that i couldn't smell anything and they surprisingly had never heard of it; very disconcerting. I'm sorry to hear you've dealt with the same thing but I'm glad to not be alone in this situation.

I noticed that this forum is from a year or so ago. So the question remains... have your smelling/tasting abilities returned to 100%?

I have to use my nose and taste buds quite a bit for my line of work and therefore am absolutely terrified to lose them! Thanks for anyone reading this.

-Brent

Illogical
Posts: 26
Joined: Sat Sep 09, 2017 1:53 am

Re: Lost sense of smell after double jaw surgery

#18 Post by Illogical »

Sorry this reply came so late. Yes my sense of smell and taste appears to have returned to 100%.

I really think it was the mouthwash - so be careful with the stuff!

Good luck with your senses - it's a real downer to lose one.

Popnull
Posts: 1
Joined: Mon May 10, 2021 6:58 pm

Re: Lost sense of smell after double jaw surgery

#19 Post by Popnull »

I'm 6 weeks post op from lefort 1 maxilary advancement. I also had loss of taste and smell and it was 30% the first week. Then it slowly came back now I feel it's 75% back. Also when I eat things they taste "drier" than they actually are. I can't appreciate the fine level of smell and taste I had before the surgery. I also did notice the chlorhexidine mouthwash did affect my taste but it wasn't that much of an effect and I have stopped using it after the first month.

Apparently it can take a year or more to recover and it is definitely a potential side effect that can occur. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12856248/

I guess I just have to wait a year at least for the nerves to recover! It is really annoying, especially for soneone who enjoys food with complexity of flavor.

I'm glad OP recovered their sensation.

BettyS
Posts: 2
Joined: Tue Oct 12, 2021 4:11 pm

Re: Lost sense of smell after double jaw surgery

#20 Post by BettyS »

Got here by googling loss of sense of smell. Tomorrow it’ll be 3 weeks since double jaw surgery and my sense of smell is not completely gone, but it’s been so faint. I haven’t noticed any progress on that.

Or on the numbness in my tongue/lips/part of my chin. The surgical team said they did a nerve scan before waking me up and all my nerves are good and undamaged? Not sure where the disconnect is. Hopefully my sensation will come back, but I keep hearing stories where it doesn’t- including a coworker of mine who got upper jaw surgery maybe 3 years ago and still can’t feel parts of his face.

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