Taste: Disorders

Taste disorders are broadly classified as losses (i.e., ageusia and hypogeusia) or as distortions of gustatory function (i.e., dysgeusia). Ageusia is the complete absence of the ability to detect or recognize any taste quality, including sweet, sour, salty, bitter, as well as less familiar taste sensations, including umami (meatlike taste of glutamate salts), fatty, metallic, starchy/polysaccharide, chalky, and astringent. Hypogeusia is the reduced ability to detect or recognize taste stimuli and refers both to generalized loss of sensitivity across [Page 958]all taste qualities or to decrements that are limited to a specific taste quality, such as salty or bitter. A person with hypogeusia requires more molecules (or ions) for a taste sensation to be perceived and recognized compared to a person with normal taste perception.

Dysgeusia ...