Restoring scent

The virus has provided insights into the mechanisms behind losing the sense of smell, and has resulted in a large group of people with a persistent olfactory impairment who can take part in clinical trials of potential treatments. "In the last decade or so, as the understanding and treatments for chronic sinusitis have improved, there's been much greater interest in addressing olfactory disorders," says David Gudis, a rhinologist at the Columbia University Irving Medical Center in New York. The olfactory nerve is the only cranial nerve that can repair itself when damaged, and olfactory sensory neurons - cells in the upper part of the nose that recognize different odorant molecules - renew themselves periodically throughout life. In the early 2010s, Zara Patel, a rhinologist at Stanford University in California who was frustrated by the lack of treatment options for people with non-rhinosinusitis smell loss, set out to simplify the procedure for everyday clinical practice by using readily available essential oils.