Taste and Smell Side Effects: What Medications Can Do to Your Senses

When you take a new medication, you expect side effects like dizziness or nausea—but few people prepare for losing the ability to taste, the ability to detect flavors through chemical receptors in the mouth or smell, the sense that detects airborne chemicals through the nose. These changes aren’t rare. In fact, over 200 common drugs—from antibiotics to blood pressure pills—can mess with your senses of taste and smell. It’s not just about food tasting bland. Losing these senses can make you eat less, lose weight, or even miss dangerous smells like gas or smoke.

Why does this happen? Some drugs directly block the nerve signals from your tongue or nose to your brain. Others change saliva composition, which affects how flavors dissolve. Antibiotics like clindamycin, a topical and oral antibiotic used for acne and infections or metronidazole, a common treatment for bacterial and parasitic infections are known to cause a metallic taste. Blood pressure meds like amlodipine, a calcium channel blocker used to treat high blood pressure and ACE inhibitors like lisinopril can dull taste or cause dry mouth, which makes everything taste off. Even antidepressants and thyroid meds like levothyroxine, a synthetic hormone used to treat underactive thyroid have been linked to smell loss. The effect isn’t always obvious right away—it can build up over weeks or months.

If you notice your favorite foods tasting flat or you can’t smell coffee, perfume, or smoke anymore, don’t ignore it. Talk to your doctor. Sometimes switching medications helps. Other times, it’s a sign your body is reacting to something deeper. These changes aren’t just inconvenient—they can impact nutrition, safety, and mental health. The posts below cover real cases where people lost taste or smell after starting common drugs, how to tell if it’s the medicine or something else, and what steps you can take to get your senses back—or at least manage the change safely.