Interestingly, anosmia can be difficult for doctors to diagnose properly, mostly because testing both nostrils at the same time tends to lead to an inaccurate test result. Instead, physicians will press one nostril shut and use a pungent odor to test the other nostril. They then repeat the process with the second nostril. If a patient can properly identify the odor, the doctor can assume the patient doesn’t have anosmia. If anosmia is present, doctors may refer to medical histories to find possible underlying causes such as trauma. CT scans or MRI scans can sometimes identify previously undiagnosed conditions.

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