Taste and SARS-CoV-2 – why are dentists important?

In March 2020, while in Italy, I examined a 36-year-old woman with no associated medical conditions who presented with ageusia and anosmia. This patient eventually tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 and was the first well documented case that specifically reported taste and smell alteration as the sole manifestation of COVID-19 in an otherwise healthy individual.

Dentists and COVID-19.

This case and the associated umbrella review, now published in TripleO, exemplifies how chemosensory alterations can be the sole clinical manifestations of COVID-19¹. This led me to write a piece for dentists and oral health workers, where I collected the available evidence and resources to help dental professionals minimize the spread of SARS-CoV-2². These recommendations have been well-received, widely cited, and are being integrated in the clinical curriculum of leading dental schools worldwide³.

Geographical patterns of COVID-related taste alterations.

While the story unfolded, I found it interesting to see how chemosensory disfunctions in COVID-19 patients varied dramatically between studies. For this reason, I assessed the cumulative prevalence of ageusia/hypogeusia or dysgeusia in SARS-CoV-2-positive cases and found that there were striking geographical differences – see map below. Preprint of this work was published in medRxiv. There is now a well-recognized pattern of gustatory disturbances in COVID-19. We were the first to report this regional variation⁴ and our findings were eventually peer-reviewed and accepted for publication in the Journal of Infection and Public Health⁵. My early observations were extended in a collaborative study on 27,687 cases, which was recently published⁶.