Sense of Taste After Tonsillectomy
Hello, I’m from Greece and I’m male, 49. I had a tonsillectomy at 28 September 2016. The operation went well but I had a lot of pain for 20 days and swollen tissues especially the uvula and a tissue on the right of it, where I had the bigger tonsil. My right tonsil was deep inside my neck and deep in my throat. After one month the pain stopped and the damaged tissues recovered, but since then my taste was not the same, especially to the sweets. I couldn’t taste them at all. I had a salty taste all day and I preferred meat, stakes, bbq etc. I lost some kilos-the good side effect.
The taste of sweet came back recently, I can taste them on my tongue, but it stops there..no taste at the back of my throat..We call it in Greek language “epigeusis” (in free transation after-taste, “second-phase taste” ) . So, no chocolate taste at the back of my throat, like before. I still cannot determine how sweet is e.g. a piece of chocolate, how bitter is , or the percentage of cocoa it has.. .The doctors and the surgeon told me that the feeling of taste will be back after six months an I noticed all this time from the operation that the taste became better. I’ m not frustrated, but I believe that it won’t be the same as before operation. From days to days I noticed that the air which reaches in the throat-its absolutely bigger quantity than before and the operation in that section gave me a better life and sleep- dehydrates my throat an gives me the feeling that I don’t have enough saliva in my mouth. I think that the reduce of saliva is a reason that I cant taste the sweets, especially the baked sweets or the creams (cream patisserie). I taste much better the syrups like honey or maple syrup. I will start with my doctor some tests to see if I have a kind of diabetes type 2. I also have been tested if I have Sjogren’s Syndrome and Lupus ..but all ok .. thanks God. I also plan to visit the section of Oto-rino-larygology (Ear-nose-throat) of Medical University of Thessaloniki. This section has a special part which is specialized in counting the taste using electro-stimulation. But it only measures the grade of the taste ..it doesn’t offer a healing . ..maybe they have a solution..We shall see..
Hi Greg – I had my surgery in October and I have the same problem as you with taste. Sweet thing particularly chocolate tastes like salt. Tomato tastes metallic. Savoury things are not too bad but they are more bland than usual. As you also said, I can taste right at the front of my tongue and then that’s it. Hoping I get back my proper sense of taste as I like food!
Hi Bernie- Sorry to hear it. It did right itself for me after a few months. Hmmm, I could go for a glas of red wine….haha – Take care and thanks for posting!