post nasal drip bad taste
It must have happened to you that you have noticed the accumulation of thick, smelly and bad-tasting secretions at the back of your throat and behind your nose.
The above secretions are actually extra mucus that is secreted by the glands that exist in the inner wall of our sinuses, nose and throat.
Phlegm in the back of the pharynx is actually increased and thickened secretions that are made and secreted by the glands in the nasal mucosa and mucous cells in your throat.
We usually see phlegm in the back of the throat in people who have a habit of clearing their throat and voice regularly or who have had a chronic cough in the last three months.
Complaints of people who have phlegm in the back of the throat are a bad taste in the mouth. In the following, we want to examine the relationship between secretions at the back of the pharynx and the feeling of bad taste in the mouth.
Treatment
What is the cause of phlegm in the back of the throat?
The surface of the inner wall of the nose, the sinus cavities around the nose and the pharynx and throat is covered with a mucous layer. There are cells in this layer that are responsible for the thick and slippery secretions, The presence of these secretions is necessary to moisten and lubricate the airways.
What is the role of phlegm in the back of the throat?
These secretions will actually protect the respiratory mucus and our respiratory tracts against all kinds of environmental pollutants and allergenic pollens of flowers and plants, microbes, etc.
If these particles enter your lungs without being cleared during breathing, the mucous secretions will absorb these harmful foreign bodies and expel them from the body.
The secretion of this mucus is done continuously and you will have it mixed with your saliva or you will remove it from your nose through nasal secretions.
Are secretions from the back of the throat always abnormal?
As we explained in the above section, these secretions are a natural characteristic of the mucous cells of the nose, throat and respiratory tract, but it becomes abnormal when they secrete more than usual or their secretions become more concentrated than the standard.
It is usually abnormal in conditions that you notice abnormal, thick and sticky secretions at the back of your nose and throat, and you have to clear your voice regularly to remove them, or you cough.
Post Nasal Drip
When the secretions of the mucous cells in the throat, nose and respiratory tract become thick, increased, abnormal and annoying, doctors use the above term to justify it.
Some people may experience the symptoms of post nasal drip for years, these symptoms include coughing, the feeling of having a foreign body in the throat, and so on. . We have explained them in detail in the following article.
It should be noted that if you experience prolonged symptoms, you must see a specialist doctor.
Symptoms of postnasal drip
When the amount of these secretions is increased or its concentration is more than usual, you will notice the secretions in the back of your throat and back of your mouth.
In the following, we read the symptoms together:
The affected person states that he has a cough that has lasted for more than three months and has not responded to the usual treatments.
thick and abundant mucus in the back of the throat is one of the common causes of nausea in affected people.
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bad breath(halitosis)
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unpleasant taste in the mouth
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sore throat
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feeling of a foreign body in the throat
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frequent clearing of the voice
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hoarseness and change of voice
Causes
Factors that affect the mucous cells of these respiratory tracts and pharynx and cause the creation of abnormal mucus in the back of the pharynx are:
- Seasonal allergies that cause inflammation of the sinuses and nasal mucosa
- Asthma
- Cold and dry weather
- Viral infections
- Gastroesophageal reflux
- Eating spicy foods
- Pregnancy
- Hormonal changes
- Inhaled chemicals
- Environmental pollutants such as smoke
- enlarged adenoid
- Birth control medications
- Some blood pressure medications
- Chronic respiratory diseases such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
- Nasal structural problems such as deviated nasal septum
bad breath(halitosis) due to secretions from the back of the throat:
You must have experienced that when you suffer from viral respiratory infections, for example, you experience a simple cold or flu, or when your sinus and nasal mucosa become inflamed due to allergies, seasonal sensitivities to pollens and air pollution, one of the first symptoms that will come to you will be a bad smell in your nose, a bad smell in your breath, a bad smell in your mouth, and a bitter taste in your mouth.
In fact, the reason is that respiratory viral infections as well as allergies and sensitivities and environmental pollution cause the cells of the mucous layer of the sinuses and nose that cover the walls of these spaces to become inflamed and swollen. This swelling and inflammation causes more secretions and due to swelling, the evacuation is not done completely.
In this way, you feel that thick viscous liquid has accumulated behind the throat and the taste of food has become bad and unpleasant!
The reason for the bad smell you feel in your mouth is because of these thick secretions that the way of their evacuation is closed and they are accumulated on top of each other and have created an unpleasant smell.
Because most of the time, viral infections, bacterial infections, and fungal infections cause these secretions, or the reflux of the contents of the esophagus to the stomach causes phlegm in the back of the pharynx, you feel the bad smell and unpleasant taste in the mouth, which is caused by thick and foul-smelling secretions.
The feeling of bitter taste in the mouth, as well as the unpleasant and bitter taste of some metals in the mouth, are among the common complaints of people who have phlegm in the back of the throat.
In short, we must say that the bad smell when breathing and the unpleasant taste of food in the mouth are usually due to viral infectious and fungal infections and inflammations.
In addition, the bitter and unpleasant taste of metals in the mouth is one of the common symptoms of reflux or the return of stomach contents to the esophagus.
Other causes:
bad breath and unpleasant taste in the mouth is one of the common symptoms of people who have nasal polyps.
Because the accumulation of secretory fluids in the folds of polyps causes a bad smell due to the growth of some fungi that exist in the olfactory pathway.
Why does unpleasant taste occur after postnasal drip?
- The presence of infectious agents such as viruses, bacteria, fungi, and the growth of yeast spores
- Gastroesophageal reflux
perhaps the most common and main cause of unpleasant taste in the mouth is actually inflammation of the olfactory mucosa in the nose and sinuses.
When inflammation occurs and more and thicker secretions are produced, there is always swelling along with inflammation, and this swelling prevents the natural discharge of secretions.
The presence of swelling and inflammation may cause the olfactory nerve, which is in very close contact with the mucous membrane of your nose, to lose its function for a short period of time.
It has been proven that a great extent of our sense of taste and what we perceive as the taste of food depends on their smell, so when our sense of smell is disturbed, our sense and perception of tastes will also change.
This condition is temporary and lasts as long as the inflammation of the mucous membrane continues due to a viral infection or allergy.
The way to treat bad breath or halitosis when there is phlegm in the back of the throat is actually to treat the factor that causes inflammation of the nasal mucosa and sinuses, that is, to treat a respiratory infection or to treat allergies or gastroesophageal reflux.
Treatment
The way to treat the bad taste in the mouth related to phlegm in the back of the pharynx depends on the cause of the phlegm in the back of the pharynx.
If the cause is upper respiratory infections, according to whether the infection is viral, fungal or bacterial, appropriate treatment is adopted.
In viral infections, the use of anti-inflammatories such as ibuprofen and gelofen to relieve the inflammation and swelling of your respiratory mucosa is recommended.
In the period of upper respiratory infection with viruses, it is helpful to rinse the nose with normal saline solution and gargle with salt water or gargle with normal saline solution.
If allergies or sensitivities are the cause of bad breath followed by phlegm, the main treatment is to find the allergen and avoid it.
Using corticosteroid nasal sprays and corticosteroid nasal drops, which you can gargle in your throat, is helpful, and in addition, using new generation antihistamine tablets that do not cause drowsiness and taking one daily dose will also help you control enough symptoms.
In cases where nasal polyps are the cause of phlegm in the back of the throat and causing bad taste in the mouth, usually, in the first steps, in smaller polyps, an expert and experienced doctor tries to shrink the polyp with corticosteroid sprays. Surgery may be necessary in larger polyps.
if the return of stomach contents to the esophagus or gastroesophageal reflux causes phlegm in the back of the pharynx and you feel an unpleasant metallic taste (Metallic taste or bitter taste) in your mouth, then using antacids for a long time is definitely a standard treatment for reflux.
when to see a doctor?
If you have phlegm in the back of the throat and an unpleasant taste in the mouth and bad breath, first try to control your symptoms and improving your condition with home measures such as gargling with salt water and not consuming fatty and spicy foods, drinking large amounts of water and reducing the consumption of tea and coffee. If, despite the above care measures, after 10 days your symptoms do not change and get worse, it is necessary to see a doctor.
Final word:
The increased and concentrated secretions of the upper respiratory mucosa cells can cause an unpleasant condition called phlegm in the back of the pharynx in patients with upper respiratory viral infections, allergies and gastric reflux and structural problems of the nose.
In these cases, inflammation of the nasal mucosa and sinuses causes olfactory disorders, and taste is also affected following olfactory disorders.
The treatment and solution for this unpleasant situation in the mouth depends on the underlying cause of postnasal drip. If home remedies do not relieve your symptoms after 10 days, consider seeing a doctor.