A New Approach to Smell Training: Study Shows Promise for Better Smell Recovery

If you’re working on getting your sense of smell back after illness, you might be familiar with smell training – the practice of regularly sniffing different scents to help retrain your nose and brain. It’s become a cornerstone of smell recovery, and many of us have spent months dutifully sniffing rose, lemon, eucalyptus, and cloves.

Now, researchers have been exploring whether there might be a new approach to smell training, and a recent study has some encouraging news to share.

What the researchers did

A team of doctors worked with 117 people who had lost their sense of smell after infections (much like many of us after COVID or other viruses). They wanted to see if a new approach to smell training might work better than the traditional method.

The new approach had two key differences:

First, it used both routes to smell. Most of us think of smelling as breathing in through our nose, but we also experience smell through the back of our mouth when we eat or drink – that’s called “retronasal” smelling. The researchers created a training programme that worked on both pathways.

Second, they focused on specific natural compounds called terpenes. These are the molecules that give many plants their distinctive scents – think of the fresh smell of pine trees or the zesty aroma of citrus peels.

What they found

The results were genuinely encouraging. People who used this new “dual-route” training method with terpene-rich scents showed better improvements than those using traditional smell training.

Specifically, after 9 and 12 months, the group using the new method had:

• Better overall smell test scores
• Improved ability to identify different odours
• Better recovery of that “taste through smell” experience we get when eating
• Reduced severity of distorted smells (parosmia)
• Fewer complaints about thinking clearly and concentrating

The improvements weren’t just small technical differences – they were meaningful changes that people could actually notice in their daily lives.

What this means for you

This research doesn’t mean traditional smell training isn’t worthwhile – it absolutely still is, and many people have found it helpful. But it does suggest there might be ways to make smell training even more effective.

The study points to a few potentially important elements:

Training both smell pathways seems to matter. When you’re doing your smell training, you might consider not just sniffing scents, but also trying to experience them through your mouth – perhaps by eating foods with strong, natural aromas or drinking aromatic teas mindfully.

Natural plant-based scents rich in terpenes might be particularly helpful. This is exciting news because many of the scents we already use in smell training are naturally high in these beneficial compounds.

Our Classic Scent Recover Smell Training Kit (rose, lemon, eucalyptus, clove) provides an excellent evidence-based foundation, but the research suggests we might benefit from exploring a wider range of terpene-rich options. Our Trees Scent Training Kit is particularly relevant here – with pine, cedar, cypress, and juniper, it’s packed with exactly the kind of terpene-rich, resinous scents the research highlights. Meanwhile, our Relax Smell Training Kit offers terpene-rich botanicals like lavender and orange, plus herbal scents like clary sage.

Consistency over time remains crucial. The biggest improvements in this study were seen at 9 and 12 months, reminding us that smell recovery is often a gradual process that rewards patience and persistence.

Putting the research into practice

This research validates something many of us have instinctively felt – that variety in our smell training might be beneficial. The terpene-rich approach supports the idea of rotating between different types of scents rather than sticking to just one set.

You might start with our Classic Scent Recover Kit, which provides the foundational scents that most research is based on. From there, you could expand to include our Trees Kit, with its naturally terpene-rich woodland aromas (pine, cedar, cypress, juniper), or explore our Relax Kit with its calming botanicals (lavender, clary sage, orange, ylang ylang) that offer both terpenes and the added benefit of relaxation during your training sessions. You can find all of these in our store.

The beauty of this approach is that it encourages us to see smell training not just as a clinical exercise, but as an opportunity to reconnect with the natural world of scents that surrounds us.

Moving forward together

Research like this gives us hope that our understanding of smell recovery continues to grow. Each study builds on the last, helping us find better ways to support healing and recovery.

If you’re currently doing smell training, keep going – you’re on the right track. And if this research inspires you to try some gentle variations, like incorporating our Trees Kit with its terpene-rich woodland scents, adding our Relax Kit’s aromatic botanicals to your routine, or simply being more mindful of both the “sniffing” and “tasting” aspects of smell, that’s wonderful too.

Remember, every small step you take is part of your journey forward, and you’re not walking it alone.