Taste Disturbance in Two Patients after Dental Anesthesia by Inferior Alveolar Nerve Block

Abstract

We report two cases of temporary taste disturbance after inferior alveolar nerve block. The first patient to present with this rare complication of anesthesia for dental surgery was a 41-year-old woman. She lost the sense of taste on the left side of her tongue after local anesthesia for treatment of a left mandibular molar and first visited our outpatient clinic complaining of taste disorder 3 months later. Electrogustometry (EGM) and filter paper disk (FPD) testing revealed a taste disturbance in the innervation area of the left chorda tympani nerve and atrophy of the fungiform papillae on the left side of the tongue was observed. Eleven months after the dental treatment, the fungiform papillae and the results of EGM were normal. The second patient, a 22-year-old woman, received local anesthetic for extraction of a right mandibular molar and subsequently developed loss of taste on the right side of the tongue. When she visited our outpatient clinic 3 months later, atrophy of the fungiform papillae on the right side was observed. Her gustatory sense began to improve 4 months after the dental surgery and was normal at 13 months. From these findings we conclude that taste disturbance on the same side as the inferior alveolar nerve block in each case was due to direct injury to the chorda tympani and lingual nerves during administration of the local anesthetic. The results of EGM and FPD testing were diagnostic: atrophy of the fungiform papillae on the same side and disappearance of taste on the same side in the intravenous taste test provided complementary diagnostic information. The outcome was satisfactory in both cases.