If you have ever experienced a diminished sense of smell due to a cold, you know how distressing it can be. In some cases, a loss of the sense of smell (anosmia) or a distorted sense of smell (parosmia) will last longer than usual because the nerves in the nose have been damaged from the virus.
Smell training is a way to help retrain the nerves as they regrow. It involves using essential oils which are slowly inhaled through the nose. This is done ritually a couple times a day. It is a simple and safe therapy for smell disorders, including anosmia and parosmia.
Choosing your scents:
Where do you start when you either can't smell anything or what you can smell is distorted? What if you can't even tolerate the aromas that you will be using for smell training (maybe because of parosmia)? Well, there really are no rules to it. You can customize to your liking by following a few guidelines. But don't give up if you can't find anything tolerable in the beginning. Smell training should help improve your sense of smell gradually.
Four suggested scents to start with are: rose, clove, lemon and eucalyptus. These particular scents were chosen because they represent smells from different aroma families; floral, spicy, citrus and camphoraceous.
However, you can use any scents that you prefer instead of these four suggested starter scents. For example, I prefer the scent of lavender instead of rose. Lavender's calming properties and aroma are more appealing to me than other floral smells.
The aromas in the spicy family are strong and very recognizable. Clove has never been my favorite spicy scent so I substitute cinnamon for it.
I used to love the smell and taste of orange and lemon but now it is too distorted and not as tolerable as it used to be. In this case, I still suffer through the foul smell of lemon because all aromas in the citrus family are equally unpleasant for me with my parosmia.
Eucalyptus is strong and not pleasant with my parosmia but I tolerate it for smell training purposes. There isn't another aroma in the camphoraceous family that I would replace it with.
In addition to these scents, I include vanilla in my smell training kit because it is one of my favorite aromas and it doesn't smell bad with my parosmia. Although, I don't know if it smells normal or distorted to me, I still like it.
There are so many scents, it's just a matter of personal preference. But try to choose smells from a variety of different aroma families. The idea is to retrain the signals between your nose and your brain.
Once you decide on the aromas that you will use, you can begin to make your own
smell training kit.
Items you will need:
The essential oils for your preferred scents
A 1 oz. round jar with a lid for each scent
Round essential oil diffuser pads
12mm or 14mm size lava rock beads
Labels for the jars
A box or container large enough for at least 4 finished jars
To assemble your smell training jars:
Put a diffuser pad in each jar.
Add 1 or 2 lave rock beads
Drip a few drops of essential oil on the diffuser pad that's in the jar and a few more drops of essential oil onto the lava rocks in the jar.
Roll the lava rocks around to spread the oil in the jar.
Put the lid on the jar.
Don't forget to label the jars and the lids as you finish each one. You don't want to mix them up if you can't smell them or they smell distorted.
How to use your smell training jars:
Take the lid off one jar.
Carefully roll the lava rock beads around in the jar to activate the essential oil.
Slowly sniff inside the jar. Close your eyes. Try to imagine/remember what the aroma is supposed to smell like.
Put the lid back on the jar.
Repeat this process with each jar separately.
Repeat the whole process at least two times a day.
Refresh the aroma in each jar by adding a few drops of essential oil once a month.
Regrowth of the nerves after damage from a virus is a long and slow process. It could take many months or longer. Don't get discouraged and don't give up.
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