Interesting research appears in the article “Positive Long-Term Effects of Third Molar Extraction on Taste Function,” by Dane Kim and Richard L. Doty appears in Chemical Senses, v.ol 46, pp. 1-5, 2021. The article discusses how patients in the study had improved tasting ability decades after having wisdom teeth removed. This is counter to prior studies that have adverse effects on taste after having wisdom teeth extracted which was believed to dissipate over time.
In the article the researchers evaluated data from 1,255 patients who had undergone a chemosensory evaluation at the University of Pennslyvania’s Smell and Taste Center over the course of 20 years. From this group of patients, 891 patients had received wisdom teeth (third molar) extractions and 364 had not. All participants were asked to complete a sip-and-spit whole-mouth taste test with five different concentrations of sucrose, sodium chloride, citric acid, and caffeine. Each solution was sipped, swished in the mouth, and then spit out. For each solution, the patients indicated whether the solution tasted sweet, salty, sour, or bitter and rinsed with water between solutions.
The study showed that those who received wisdom teeth removal in the distant past experienced on average, a slight enhancement (typically a three to 10 percent improvement) in their ability to taste on a standardized and well-validated whole-mouth taste test. The extraction group outperformed the control group for each of the four tastes, and women outperformed men for the tastes.
The authors state that the mechanism for the wisdom teeth extracted related improvement in taste function in their results was uknown, but presented two nonmutually exclusive hypotheses. For the first hypothesis the authors state that extraction related damage to both lingual nerves could be expected to enhance whole-mouth taste sensitivity, particularly since most lingual taste buds are innervated by CN IX. Thus, the nerves supplying the taste buds at the back of the tongue started working harder after nerves that supply taste buds at the front were injured. For the second hypothesis, the authors state that wisdom teeth removal could cause hypersensitivity of the nerves like the chorda tympani nerve due to the repetitive nature of oral tactile stimulation from mastication, swallowing, and speech during/after wisdom teeth removal. Thus, the nerves became more sensitive after the surgery and an oral hypersenstivity has been triggered.
The authors said the study had a large sample size and used a well validated whole-mouth taste test. However some weaknesses of the study were the patients were not randomly sampled from the population, and thus may not have been represenative of the population, and there was a lack of detailed information regarding the wisdom teeth extractions. The authors conclude:
“Despite its shortcomings, however, the present study strongly suggests that, on average, [third molar removal] TME likely has a positive long-term, albeit subtle, effect on the function of the lingual taste pathways of some persons.”
It will certainly be interesting to see if additional studies on taste after wisdom teeth surgery validates the results of this study.