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Loss Of Taste, Burnt Tongue Feeling, Metallic Taste, Feels Numb. Will This Go Away?
Question: My tongue no longer seems to taste anything. It's as if I ate something hot and burned my tongue, but I haven't. When I do eat food there is hardly any taste and food kind of tastes metallic or weird. It use to be my whole tongue, but the right side can now taste, but the left doesn't. Also, the left side kind of feels numb. When I touch it it feels strange. I'm a 46 year old female and it's been about a week. I can't think of anything that has changed in my life this past week to have caused this. At first I thought I must have burnt my tongue, but I never ate anything to do that. What is this? Will it go away?
Thank you for contacting Healthcare Maggic.
Your symptoms are suggestive of cranial nerve involvement- lack of taste (facial nerve, seventh cranial nerve) and numbness over tongue (trigeminal nerve, fifth cranial nerve).
The symptoms are minor and not a cause of alarm at present. It is most often due to a viral infection and is self-limiting in nature. We expect good clinical improvement in a few weeks time.
As of now, no investigations are required. However, if the problems persist for long or if any new symptoms arise (such as facial pain, weakness of one side of face, etc), you should consult your GP/neurologist. They may order a few investigations including MRI brain (if needed then).
As of now, you could take vitamins such as B12 and other multivitamins to aid in faster recovery.
Wishing you good health,
Dr Sudhir Kumar MD DM (Neurology) XXXXXXX Consultant Neurologist
Apollo Hospitals, Hyderabad
Your symptoms are suggestive of cranial nerve involvement- lack of taste (facial nerve, seventh cranial nerve) and numbness over tongue (trigeminal nerve, fifth cranial nerve).
The symptoms are minor and not a cause of alarm at present. It is most often due to a viral infection and is self-limiting in nature. We expect good clinical improvement in a few weeks time.
As of now, no investigations are required. However, if the problems persist for long or if any new symptoms arise (such as facial pain, weakness of one side of face, etc), you should consult your GP/neurologist. They may order a few investigations including MRI brain (if needed then).
As of now, you could take vitamins such as B12 and other multivitamins to aid in faster recovery.
Wishing you good health,
Dr Sudhir Kumar MD DM (Neurology) XXXXXXX Consultant Neurologist
Apollo Hospitals, Hyderabad
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Above answer was peer-reviewed by :
Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar
Answered by
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