A change in your sense of smell can be unpleasant and affect how things taste. But it is not usually serious and may get better in a few weeks or months.

Changes in sense of smell are most often caused by:

• a cold or flu
• sinusitis (sinus infection)
• an allergy, like hay fever
• growths in your nose (nasal polyps)

These can cause:

• loss of smell (anosmia)
• smelling things that are not there (phantosmia), like smoke or burnt toast
• reduced sense of smell (hyposmia)
• the smell of things to change (parosmia)

Rinsing the inside of your nose with a saltwater solution may help if your sense of smell is affected by an infection or allergy.

You can make a saltwater solution at home.

Some pharmacies sell sachets you can use to make a saltwater solution and devices to help you rinse your nose.

Your sense of smell may go back to normal in a few weeks or months.

Treating the cause might help. For example, steroid nasal sprays or drops might help if you have sinusitis or nasal polyps.

A treatment called smell training can also help some people. To find out more about smell training, see:

• AbScent: smell training
• Fifth Sense: smell testing and training

Sometimes changes in sense of smell can not be treated and may be permanent.