If a virus causes loss of sense of smell, you often lose 100% of smell immediately. As you recover, your smell returns gradually, with certain smells (and therefore tastes) taking longer to come back than others. Why is this?

Question

If a virus causes loss of sense of smell, you often lose 100% of smell immediately. As you recover, your smell returns gradually, with certain smells (and therefore tastes) taking longer to come back than others. Why is this?

In: Biology

Answer 1

Suppose your house burned down. The whole thing would be destroyed in less than a day. Rebuilding it would take months or years, with different parts of the construction finishing at different times.

Destroying something is quick and easy. Putting it back together takes time and tends to have a lot of steps to it.