Learn More About Loss of Smell and Taste Due to Covid as 86% of people with mild cases lose it but recover within six months according to a new study of 2500 patients from 18 European hospitals.

A case of Covid-19 was considered mild if there was no evidence of viral pneumonia or loss of oxygen and the patient was able to recover at home.
The sense of smell reappeared after an average of 18 to 21 days, the study found, but about 5% of people had not recovered olfactory function at six months.

Source

The Study

More info – retraining your sense of smell

“Patients with post-viral smell loss have roughly a 60-80 percent chance of regaining some of their smell function at one year,” Grayson said. “However, people with traumatic injuries often do not regain smell.”

Smell retraining consists of exposure to certain scents in a repeated nature over many weeks. Patients smell four odor categories — flowery, fruity, aromatic and resinous — every day for 12 weeks and potentially up to six months.

“Studies have shown improvement in smell when patients utilize smell retraining, and some studies have suggested changing the four scents at 12-week intervals,” she said. “When patients performing smell retraining were compared to patients who were not, there were more patients who had improvement in their sense of smell.”