1.What part of the nasal cavity do people rely on to feel smell and what is the importance of smell to people The human nasal cavity is covered by a layer of mucous membrane, at the top of the nasal cavity is the olfactory mucosa responsible for olfactory perception, with an area of about 200-400mm2. There are a large number of olfactory nerve cells distributed in the mucous membrane of the olfactory area to feel odor stimulation, according to literature, normal people can recognize 2000-100000 kinds of odors. The sense of smell in animals is closely related to foraging, courtship, domain and other behaviors. For humans, the sense of smell has degenerated to a certain extent, however, it still plays an important role in affecting appetite, emotion and warning danger signals. Some studies have pointed out that patients with olfactory disorders are two times more likely to have accidents than those with normal sense of smell. Therefore, smell disorder can seriously affect a person’s quality of life, and even endanger lives because they cannot feel the irritating smell of dangerous toxic gases.
2, usually at home can be how to monitor their sense of smell, with what simple method, how to make a basic judgment The most direct feeling is often when family members have a sense of many smells, but they can not feel, such as not feeling the nasty odor, such as the bathroom odor, moldy things in the kitchen, or there is a gas leak odor also do not feel obvious, pleasant various scents, such as perfume, meals, etc. Sometimes sour, sweet, bitter and spicy taste insensitivity is often accompanied by a diminished sense of smell.
3.In the past, there would be smell check in physical examination, but now we seldom see it, what is the reason? Nowadays, smell is usually not checked, because the special examination method takes some time and requires special reagents, which increases the cost of examination.
4. What are the lifestyle or bad habits that hurt the sense of smell more For example, digging nose often, which leads to damage of nasal mucosa, or staying in too dry air for too long, which will destroy the secretion function of nasal mucosa leading to dryness of nasal cavity and affect the dissolution of odor molecules into the mucus on the surface of mucosa of olfactory area, which will affect the sense of smell. Staying in a space with heavy odor for a long time will lead to olfactory adaptation and affect the sensitivity of the sense of smell. Or the use of some irritating topical nasal medications may also lead to damage to the nasal mucosa and image the sense of smell. For example, if rhinitis is not treated in time after cold, the inflammation will also affect the mucous membrane of the olfactory area and lead to smell disorder.
5.If the sense of smell decreases in a short period of time, it may indicate what diseases For example, if there is a heavy head trauma, you will feel the sense of smell diminished or even lost soon after the injury, which is due to the damage or even interruption of the olfactory afferent nerve pathway into the skull caused by the trauma. Some patients may experience hyposmia or even loss of smell after a cold, which may be related to inflammation of the mucous membrane and impaired nerve function in the olfactory region caused by viral infection. Inflammatory conditions such as allergic rhinitis and sinusitis with nasal polyps may also cause hyposmia. Some tumors such as olfactory neuroblastoma may also produce a gradual loss of smell. Some central nervous system disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease (dementia) and Parkinson’s disease may also present with early manifestations of olfactory impairment.