BMC Ear, Nose and Throat Disorders

Background: Smoking is the cause of inducing changes in taste functionality under conditions of chronic exposure. The objective of this study was to evaluate taste sensitivity in young smokers and non-smokers and identify any differences in the shape, density and vascularisation of the fungiform papillae (fPap) of their tongue. Methods: Sixty-two male subjects who served in the Greek military forces were randomly chosen for this study. Thirty-four were non-smokers and 28 smokers. Smokers were chosen on the basis of their habit to hold the cigarette at the centre of their lips. Taste thresholds were measured with Electrogustometry (EGM). The morphology and density of the fungiform papillae (fPap) at the tip of the tongue were examined with Contact Endoscopy (CE). Results: There was found statistically important difference (p < 0.05) between the taste thresholds of the two groups although not all smokers presented with elevated taste thresholds: Six of them (21%) had taste thresholds similar to those of non-smokers. Differences concerning the shape and the vessels of the fungiform papillae between the groups were also detected. Fewer and flatter fPap were found in 22 smokers (79%). Conclusion: The majority of smokers shown elevated taste thresholds in comparison to nonsmokers. Smoking is an important factor which can lead to decreased taste sensitivity. The combination of methods, such as EGM and CE, can provide useful information about the vascularisation of taste buds and their functional ability. Background Complete loss of taste is rather uncommon because the presence of four major afferent routes for taste provides substantial redundancy to the sensory communication for taste and a substantial back-up system in case of failure of any single nerve. There are two categories of taste measurement, whole mouth and regional tests. A preliminary evaluation of a patient suffering from taste disorders can be performed with the use of colourless solutions of sweet, bitter, sour and salt. More sophisticated is regional chemogustometry whereby chemicals are applied to part of the tongue using Published: 20 August 2009 BMC Ear, Nose and Throat Disorders 2009, 9:9 doi:10.1186/1472-6815-9-9 Received: 13 November 2008 Accepted: 20 August 2009 This article is available from: http://www.biomedcentral.com/1472-6815/9/9 © 2009 Pavlos et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.