Self-reported smell and taste alteration as the sole clinical manifestation of SARS-CoV-2 infection

Chemosensory dysfunction has increasingly been reported in patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Here, we document a case of a patient with taste and smell alterations as the only clinical manifestations of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection. In March 2020, a 36-year-old woman presented with self-reported hypogeusia/ageusia and hyposmia/anosmia in the absence of any respiratory symptom. The patient, who had no clinical and radiographic signs of sinusitis and was otherwise healthy, eventually had a positive test result for SARS-CoV-2. She did not develop any COVID-19–related symptoms throughout her 6-month follow up. Her self-reported chemosensory dysfunction lasted for 12 weeks. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report that has accurately documented taste and smell alteration as the sole manifestation of COVID-19 in an otherwise healthy individual. Overall, analysis of current evidence supports the inclusion of gustatory and olfactory alterations as cardinal symptoms of COVID-19. Dentists’ awareness of the diagnostic criteria for case definition of COVID-19 can facilitate early detection of the disease.