Testing starts with the first device to improve and treat odor loss

Loss of odor. This is a common symptom for millions of people during the 19th pandemic.

But this is not the only condition that can change the sense of smell. Sinus infections, head trauma, neurological disorders and aging can all cause odor problems.

You can’t taste and enjoy the food when you can’t smell it. It affects your ability to detect hazards such as gas, smoke, or spoil food. There is currently no effective treatment.

To address this, Ohio State University School of Medicine researchers are the first in the world to design non-invasive odor help to improve the odor ability of healthy people and those who have difficulty smelling.

“For centuries, there have been innovations to help people see and hear better sounds, but there is no way to improve olfactory function or olfactory ability,” Professor in the Department of Otolaryngology Sciences – Head and Neck Cancer. “The smell helps our team grow and promises to be an effective over-the-counter therapy like glasses and hearing aids.”

Clinical trials tested the use of two odor-assisted prototypes that increased the flow of air into tissues in the nasal cavity that caused a odor. A nose foam plug made from earplugs transfers air and odor to the area. A nose clip similar to that used by synchronous swimmers, clamps into the nasal valve area, exacerbating nasal airflow to the same area.

The trial participated in 58 healthy people and 54 undersalted patients. Among patients who undersmelled, 69% of patients suffered from post-olfactory dysfunction. The rest are losses or olfactory distortions caused by head trauma, head and neck cancer and surgery or nasal breathing.

In the odor test for healthy people, participants squeezed two bottles, one after another, and had to determine which bottle contained the odor. Patients who undersmelled tested using the National Health Agency Identification Test, which included 9 scratch and sniff odor ID cards. Patients scratch and sniff each of each 9 cards in a random order and select odors based on 4 multiple choices. Both groups completed the test at baseline and wore nasal congestion and nasal clips in a balanced order.

Among healthy study participants, both prototypes were in both of those with normal odor function, but did not significantly improve in those with hypersensitive sense of smell.

“This may give people some insight, like an analogy, glasses may significantly improve suboptimal vision, but have little effect on perfect 20/20 vision,” Zhao said. “And the effect size is 2.1 (95% CI: 0.334 -3.797). Since these odor bottles are prepared in half-wood dilution, this means these people are 10 times less concentrated at concentrations, so after emitting the odor, these odors are less than 10 times more concentrated.”

In patients with loss of smell, two odor aids were used, especially in the non-rotating group, with an effect size of 1.065 (95% CI: 0.190-1.940).

“These patients can find and correctly identify one odor evenly after wearing it,” Zhao said. “For shared long-distance transportation, only nasal congestion is still effective.”

The findings show that non-invasive devices are used in different types of users to improve their sense of smell. There is currently no effective targeted therapy for long-term olfactory dysfunction. Existing odor loss treatments, such as olfactory training and platelet-rich plasma injections are supportive or experimental.

“Smells have the potential to help broadly those who lose their sense of smell or rely on chefs, perfumers, food and wine critics, and those who want to enrich the food and perfume experience,” Zhao said.

Future research will focus on perfecting the design and improving the effectiveness of odor aid tools.

The article “Designing novel “odor assist” to improve olfactory function in the Covid-19 era” was published in the Journal BMC Medicine. Other authors in Ohio include Veronica L. Formanek, Barak M. Spector, Gabriela Zappitelli, and Zhenxing Wu, PhD.