Comparative Evaluation of Altered Taste Perception among Oral Submucous Fibrosis Patients

BACKGROUND: Taste perception is an important factor in sustaining human life. Impairment of taste is one of the important features of oral submucous fibrosis (OSMF), and it has not received much attention, owing to limited research work in the field. Therefore, the present study was conducted to determine taste alteration in OSMF patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 200 participants, both males and females with the age range of 20 years to 55 years, were included in the study. Four basic tastants (i.e., sweet, salt, sour, and bitter) were prepared as follows: sucrose for sweet (0.1–1.0 mol/l), sodium chloride for salty (0.01–1.0 mol/l), citric acid for sour (0.320–0.032 mol/l), and quinine sulfate for bitter (0.01–1.0 mol/l) and full mouth rinse test was performed for a complete taste response examination, after which punch biopsy was taken from buccal mucosa to determine histopathological staging. The data obtained were tabulated and analyzed by the Pearson Chi-square test; P < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. RESULTS: The overall results suggested that there was a significant alteration of taste. The sweet taste was altered followed by salty and bitter was least affected. CONCLUSION: The study points out at the significance of alteration in taste perception is OSMF patients related to sweet, salt, sour, and bitter taste by using physiological stimuli tastants.