The Stanford Smell Disorders Team

Director of Stanford Initiative to Cure Smell and Taste Loss

Zara M. Patel, MD
Professor of Otolaryngology — Head & Neck Surgery and, by courtesy, of Neurosurgery
Alyssa Azevedo, NP
Nurse Practitioner

The best doctors to help with loss or distortion of smell and taste depend on why you have developed this problem.

For many common causes, including COVID-19 and other upper respiratory infections, trauma, medications, toxin exposure, endocrine and metabolic disorders and a host of other underlying medical issues, Dr. Patel and her clinical team are the experts who can properly diagnose and direct treatment.

If you have other symptoms of Long-COVID that you need help with, Dr. Patel works closely with Stanford’s Post-Acute COVID Syndrome (PACS) clinic, who have received national recognition and funding to help patients still affected by this illness.

For patients who have developed smell and taste loss due to sinusitis or a sinus tumor or mass, Dr. Patel and her rhinology colleagues in the Stanford Sinus Center are the best doctors to help you with your issues.

Peter H. Hwang, MD
Professor of Otolaryngology - Head & Neck Surgery (OHNS) and, by courtesy, of Neurosurgery
Zara M. Patel, MD
Professor of Otolaryngology - Head & Neck Surgery (OHNS) and, by courtesy, of Neurosurgery
Jayakar V. Nayak, MD, PhD
Associate Professor of Otolaryngology - Head & Neck Surgery (OHNS) and, by courtesy, of Neurosurgery
Michael Chang, MD
Assistant Professor of Otolaryngology - Head & Neck surgery (OHNS)
Noel Ayoub, MD, MBA
Clinical Assistant Professor, Otolaryngology (Head and Neck Surgery)

For patients who have developed smell and taste loss due to a tumor or mass that has originated at the skull base, or grown to involve the skull base (the bone between the sinus cavity and the brain above), Dr. Patel and her rhinology and neurosurgical colleagues in the Stanford Skull Base Program are the best doctors to help you with your issues.

Juan Carlos Fernandez-Miranda, MD, FACS
Professor of Neurosurgery and, by courtesy, of Otolaryngology — Head & Neck Surgery
Robert Dodd, MD, PhD
Professor of Neurosurgery and, by courtesy, of Otolaryngology — Head & Neck Surgery

Some moderate amount of smell and taste loss can occur normally with aging, but when the loss is severe, this can be the earliest sign of neurodegenerative disease. Common diseases of this type are Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, Lewy body dementia, and others.

We have an excellent Neurology department here at Stanford, with programs in healthy aging, REM sleep disorders, and different neurodegenerative diseases, with world class doctors and scientists with whom we aim to collaborate with to move forward our understanding of the link between loss of smell and taste and the development of these diseases.

Elizabeth Mormino
Associate Professor (Research) of Neurology and Neurological Sciences (Neurology Research)
Kathleen Poston, MD, MS
Edward F. and Irene Thiele Pimley Professor of Neurology and the Neurological Sciences and Professor, by courtesy, of Neurosurgery
Sharon Sha, MD, MS
Clinical Professor, Adult Neurology
Mitchell Miglis, MD
Clinical Professor, Adult Neurology Clinical Associate Professor, Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences - Sleep Medicine

The Stanford Initiative to Cure Smell and Taste Loss is part of the Research Division within Stanford's Department of Otolaryngology — Head & Neck Surgery