A really bright light can make me blind. A really loud noise can make me deaf. Can a really strong flavour break my taste buds? Or a strong odour break my sense of smell?

  • NuanceDemon@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    1 month ago

    Corsodyl mouthwash, according to my dentist, is not supposed to be used every day because it can permanently alter your sense of taste.

    Thats only 1 dentist though you’d have to ask the other 9 to know for sure.

    • garbagebagel@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      My hygienist told me recent studies say mouthwash isn’t all that good for you anyway because it kills the good germs too.

    • jrTug_2T@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      1 month ago

      Vapes kinda work in a similar fashion to foods. I remember having to switch from vanilla, because it was making my coffee taste like nothing.

      For the curious, I removed nicotine from my diet last February. About 28 years, total.

  • Smoogs@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    oh yeah, you can totally change your sense of taste of sweet and salty

    remove either of these for several weeks and then slowly bring them back and you will find you are far more sensitive to them than previously.

    the addiction to high level sweet taste is why dieting is so hard for so many and why sugar substitutes are targetted as an option.

    • XeroxCool@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      If I have ice cream and then a piece of 100% dark chocolate, its tasteless. When I do keto and have a piece of 100% as my only dessert, it’s the sweetest thing in my life.

  • explore_broaden@midwest.social
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    1 month ago

    One flavor is just detecting acid (sour), and so a strong enough sour flavor would chemically destroy your taste buds by basically dissolving them. I think this is fairly similar to the fact that too bright a light will damage the light detection in your eye. I’m not sure about any others tastes or smells though.

  • Assassassin@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    1 month ago

    Chewing a pink peppercorn can KO your ability to taste for like 15 minutes or so, in my experience. Working with ammonia for a little while will also nuke your ability to smell for a while, which is a big part of taste.

  • FuglyDuck@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    Strong mint can absolutely knock out other flavors for a time.

    I also knew a guy who had cancer (thyroid? Don’t quote me on that,) that the treatment knocked out his sense of taste. Everything except flour.

    • Arghblarg@lemmy.ca
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      1 month ago

      I have a friend whose sense of taste and salivary glands were messed up by focused radiation treatments for a growth on his neck (not thyroid, I forget what it was exactly, but thankfully amenable to treatment). Took a year or so for both to recover…

  • RBWells@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    We used to occasionally have to put our kids on “sugar fast” when they ate too much sweet stuff because they then couldn’t taste sweet in lightly sweet stuff. So their palate needed to be recalibrated. I’ve had to do the same with salt before.

    And I am desensitized to spicy things but like that because I can appreciate more foods that way, or more of the ones I tend to like. But surely it’s a form of damage.

  • soyslurper2@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    1 month ago

    People here keep listing diseases and chemicals when OP is asking about taste and smell.

    Unless you’re drinking bleach, food will never destroy your sense of taste. It’s the same with smell. There are chemicals that are really smelly and can destroy your nose, but smell ≠ nose destruction.

  • KingPorkChop@lemmy.ca
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    1 month ago

    Ageusia is the term for loss of taste.

    Traumatic damage to the olfactory nerve can cause of lack of smell but you would also need to damage the tongue for the taste.

    You won’t do it from eating regular foods, but trying to eat a large enough firecracker might do the trick. It could take out both the tongue and the nerve.

    Don’t do that though. It would probably blow the jaw off and make you blind as well.