Due to the COVID-19 epidemic, the number of patients suffering from taste disorders has exploded in recent years. However, there are currently few treatments to improve taste sensitivity, and many patients do not respond to them. Therefore, a new treatment for taste disorders must be developed.
Professor Satoru Ebihara, M.D., Ph.D., and his colleagues developed a taste rehabilitation method using filter paper discs as a new treatment for taste disorders, and tested its efficacy on healthy subjects. 42 healthy participants were randomly assigned to the training group or the control group. The method for taste rehabilitation created by the research team consists of four steps.
In the first step, the taste perception thresholds of four tastes (sweetness, saltiness, sourness, and bitterness) were measured using one of the taste testing methods, the filter paper disc method. In the second step, participants in the training group were instructed to match the four tastes between those of taste recognition thresholds and those of a one-step higher concentration until they got it right. In the third step, participants were instructed to match the four tastes between those of one-step lower and one-step higher concentrations based on their taste recognition thresholds until they got it right.
In step four, participants were instructed to match the four tastes between those of one-step lower concentration and those of their taste recognition thresholds. The results demonstrated that the training group’s sensitivity to all four tastes (sweetness, saltiness, sourness, and bitterness) increased significantly. Although there was no significant difference between the two groups’ initial taste perception thresholds, the training group’s taste sensitivity increased significantly by day 4 relative to the control group.
The method of taste rehabilitation has the potential to improve taste sensitivity and is anticipated to be among the treatments for taste disorders.”
Otsubo, Y., et al. (2022) Improving taste sensitivity in healthy adults using taste recall training: a randomized controlled trial. Scientific Reports. doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-18255-z.