The correlation between smoking habits and sensitivity and taste function disorders: A literature review

Introduction: Smoking habits can cause various health problems. Smoking can have a direct or indirect negative impact on taste function, and the severity of the impact depends on the level of exposure to smoking. Smoking causes benign and sometimes malignant changes in the oral cavity which is the first part of the body exposed to cigarette smoke and its harmful substances. Method: Descriptive research method literature review. The research includes articles published from 2016 to 2023 using databases in the form of Google Scholar, Pubmed, and Science direct which discuss the "Correlation of Smoking Habits to Taste Sensitivity". Results: Smoking can cause changes in the taste buds and vascularization of the fungiform papillae, reducing the ability to taste. As the amount and duration of smoking increases, a direct proportional increase in EGM taste threshold is seen due to a reduced number of fungiform papillae on the dorsum of the tongue in smokers. In addition, nicotine from cigarettes can cause vasoconstriction and hypoxia, thereby reducing taste sensitivity while increasing systolic blood pressure. Conclusion: Smoking has a negative effect in the form of decreased taste and dysfunction, the severity of the impact depends on the level of exposure to smoking. This situation is caused by a decrease in the number of papillae and the number of taste buds per papilla.