Does Sjogren’s syndrome affect odor identification abilities?

Excerpt

Sjogren’s syndrome (SS) is an autoimmune disease affecting multiple organ systems which negatively impacts on patients’ quality of life [1‐3]. Olfaction in SS has not been well studied. Two previous studies have shown some change in odor identification ability and smell threshold in SS patients [2, 4]. This change in SS patients’ ability to smell is thought to relate to changes within the nose, including dry mucosa, septal ulcerations and crustings, which may affect contact between odor molecules and olfactory receptors [5, 6]. In contrast, burning mouth syndrome (BMS) is an idiopathic pain syndrome with normal local and systemic findings and smell loss is not a typical complaint of these patients [7]. However, quality of life is also affected strongly in these patients [8]. Therefore, BMs patients were chosen as a control group for studies in olfactory function in SS patients. …