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Sandow PL, Hejrat-Yazdi M et al. J Dent Res 2006; 85: 608–611

Post-irradiation gustatory dysfunction may occur within 3 days of starting radiotherapy, and taste bud degeneration within 1 week. The present 1 yr study followed 13 oral cancer patients (P) who had received irradiation of at least 2/3 of the tongue and one parotid gland, and 5 healthy adults of similar age as controls (C).

At baseline, there were no differences between P and C groups for taste thresholds, using sucrose, saline, quinine and citric acid solutions of increasing strength. At 1 month, which was during radiotherapy, all P group thresholds were substantially elevated but returned to normal at 6 and 12 months. The threshold increases at 1 month were 6-fold for sour, 13-fold for salt and sweet, and 107-fold for bitter. The authors comment that the recovery of taste indicated that radiation damage occurred in the taste cells and not in the nerve fibres.