The totality of the oral sensory experience is termed “flavour”, the interaction of smell, taste, irritation, texture and temperature.
Because most flavour is derived form the smell is often reported as a problem with “taste”.
Verifiable taste deficits are more likely preset if specific losses to sweet, sour, salty and bitter sensations are described.
Taste is the sense which communicates to us a knowledge of vapid bodies by means of the sensations which they excite.
It is generally agreed that there are only four basic or true, taste: sweet, bitter, sour, and salty. The sensitivity to taste is located in taste buds of the tongue.
The taste buds are grouped in papillae, which appear to be sensitive to more than one taste.
Taste buds are collections of cells adapted for the transduction of chemical signals into electrical impulses.
There is undoubtedly a regional distribution of the four kinds of receptors at the tongue, creating areas of sensitivity – the sweet taste at the tip of the tongue, bitter at the back, sour at the edges, and salty at both edges and tip.
Perception of the basic taste qualities results from a pattern of nerve activity coming from many taste cells; specific receptors for sweet, sour, bitter and salty do not exist.
It may be envisioned that a single taste cell posses multiple receptor sites, each of which may have specificity.
The taste system is sustained by regenerative capability and redundant innervations. Because of this, clinically notable taste disorders are less common than olfactory disorders.
Taste distortion are more common than significant taste loss and when present are more likely to have secondary adverse effects such as anxiety and depression.
Taste disorders can be caused by injury to the tongue mucosa and taste receptors, injury to the cranial relaying taste information, aging, radiation, toxins and medication.
Definition of Taste