Tasteless

[sad old git]

Hi All. About a fortnight or so ago my wife developed these symptoms...Seventy percent or so loss of taste, slight swelling of her lower lip,partial numbness in her mouth and the tip of her tongue. She has seen her GP twice. First he gave her antihystemines to combat allergies but they don't seem to have worked so he is now trying some kind of drops to combat mouth infections and has suggested that she should consult her dentist as they know more about mouth problems than GPs so she has made an appointment to do so. Variouse "friends?" of ours have suggested Bell's Palsy could be the culprit, very comforting!!.I should add that she has not lost any of her other senses; she still knows when I burn the toast. All the best to you all, Hope to talk again soon.

[Sqad]

There are a couple of important symptoms that you haven't mentioned.
1) Has she any pain in the face?
2) Can she close both eyes?

if she has any paralysis on one side of the face, then Bell's Palsy is th diagnosis.

If not, then it could be a virus infection.

[Sqad]

Ooops! one further point..........has she got any deafness and/or tinnitus in either ear?

[Hypognosis]

@sqad

Last dental treatment I had, the lower lip and tip of tongue were the last bits to return to normal, so I was curious about this thread and did a search.

Is this article of any use?

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/23602113/

I looked up gustatory and it said sense of taste, so there's more than one matching symptom in the article.

[Sqad]

Hypo....good stuff.
Very rare indeed, so rare that it was worth reporting in a medical journal.
You never say "never" in medicine...;-)

[sad old git]

Squad. Many thanks for your quick replies. To answer your questions she doesn't appear to have any other symptoms relating to Bells Palsy,also no deafness or tinnitus. As I said she has an appiontment with her dentist soon so we will see what he/she comes up with. I did look up the thread from Hypognosis and it scared me a bit because I didn't understand all of it. The main word that kept coming up was stroke.....About four years ago my wife had a mild stroke and was hospitalised for twelve days.She has now fully recovered (she lost the use of her left arm and leg and slightly slurred speech). As I said she is now back to normal but after reading hypognosis thread could there be some connection?.Sorry for rambling on but I'm a bit worried so any help will be greatly appreciated.

[Hypognosis]

I had hoped not to cause alarm and that report was also too complex for me, in places. I have done a unit of physiology but that is only a toe in the water compared to medicine.

Sqad said it was rare and he will hopefully be around soon, to see your latest reply.

The dentist will need to be briefed about her stroke, if you haven't already done so.

It's none of my business, really, but still puzzled why she hasn't seen her GP about such uncommon symptoms. Then again many people don't bother their doc with syptoms that don't cause physical inconvenience or aren't above 'routine' levels of pain.

[Sqad]

Hypo....I think that she has seen her GP twice for this condition.

Sad old git. One should never exclude ANYTHING in medicine, but after saying that, i would think it extremely unlikely that her symptoms have anything to do with a stroke or her past episode.

Also from what you have said...Bell's palsy is a non starter.

I will be extremely interested in the comment of your dentist.

[Sqad]

Sad old..........I have given this problem further thought and I feel that a visit to the dentist would be of little or no value.

I would certainly go back to your GP, remind him of her past history as suggested by hypno and let him " take it from there"

Interesting.

[sad old git]

Squad. thank you again for your help. She has an appointment with her dentist on Monday so I will try to let you know the outcome asap.

[sad old git]

Re Tastless. Latest update.My wife visited her dentist yesterday morning and explained the problem to him.After a thorough examination of her mouth,gums and teeth he could find nothing wrong other than the odd filling and a slight infection in one tooth. He suggested she should make an appointment at our local hospital for more tests and since then we recieved a letter to say that our GP has already done so for early September?!! However, talking with my wife last night a bit of info came to light which may have some significance to the problem.A day or so before my wife had this trouble she had been invited to a friends house for a dinner party, while she was there she was given and ate some form of rhubarb pie. As we talked about it we both realised that her mother now long gone had an acute allergy to rhubarb, it used to bring her out in rashes and sometimes she looked like Quasimodo! Could this have anything to do with my wife's genes or something like that?....That's it my friends, that's all I've got.I'm sorry for going on but I need to get some closure.Thanks.

[Sqad]

S.O.G

\\\\As we talked about it we both realised that her mother now long gone had an acute allergy to rhubarb, it used to bring her out in rashes and sometimes she looked like Quasimodo! Could this have anything to do with my wife's genes or something like that?.\\\

Possible.....but a rank outsider for an allergy to last nearly 3 weeks.

I didn't expect much from the dentist, but do appreciate your feedback.

Keep in touch.

[sad old git]

Squad. To keep you updated since our last post Aug 5th.We recieved a letter from our local hospital saying my wife should report to the oral surgery department on Sept 28th (two days after our 55th anniversary). The title Oral surgery has scared me a bit as it sounds rather ominous. Is this just another name for ear nose and throat dept or is it something deeper?. At this point I should add that my wife has recovered some semblence of taste for some things such as wine and would you believe whisky! Bread is tasteless as are some vegatables and yet oven chips are quite palatible. The other day I made a beef casserole loaded with herbs,spices and chillies that just about blew my head off but my wife's reaction? It was ok.Sorry to ramble on Squad. I'll sign off now.