Smell Loss After a Head Injury

Our sense of smell is based on turning a stimulus into a message that our brain can understand. If anything goes wrong with any one of those steps, our ability to smell can be effected. For example, the chemical molecules that make up a smell need to be able to get up into the nose to access the smell receptors in the olfactory cleft. This happens when we sniff or breathe in through our nose. When you're congested, though, those molecules aren't making it up there, so you can't smell properly. Equally, if you have a growth in your nose, like a nasal polyp, that can act as a mechanical obstruction to being able to smell something