Does Removing Wisdom Teeth Change Your Sense of Taste?
For most people, not in a way they would notice. Some people have a temporary change in taste after wisdom tooth surgery, which usually fades within a year. A 2021 study from the University of Pennsylvania found that people who had wisdom teeth removed, on average more than 20 years earlier, scored slightly better on taste tests than people who had not. The difference was small, the study cannot prove the surgery caused it, and it is not a reason to remove healthy wisdom teeth.
What question did the study ask?
Nerves that carry taste from the tongue run close to the lower wisdom teeth. Earlier research had focused on short-term problems, such as reduced or altered taste after surgery, and those problems were generally thought to resolve within a year. Dane Kim and Richard Doty at Penn's Smell and Taste Center asked what happens to taste over the long term.
How was it done?
The researchers looked back at records of 1,255 people who had been tested at the Smell and Taste Center over about 20 years. Of these, 891 had had wisdom teeth removed and 364 had not.
Everyone had taken the same whole-mouth taste test. They sipped and spat out solutions of sugar, salt, citric acid and caffeine at several strengths and identified each one as sweet, salty, sour or bitter. The analysis accounted for age.
What did it find?
The group that had wisdom teeth removed scored better for all four tastes.
The scores were not linked to how long ago the surgery took place.
In both groups, women scored higher than men, and taste declined with age.
According to the press release, the improvement was typically about 3 to 10 percent.
The authors suggested two possible explanations. Minor injury to one taste nerve might reduce the normal dampening it has on another taste nerve, so overall taste becomes slightly more sensitive. Or the injured nerve itself might become more sensitive over time. Neither has been tested.
What are the limits?
It looked back at existing records rather than following people before and after surgery.
The participants were people tested at a smell and taste clinic, so they may not represent the general public.
An association does not show that removing wisdom teeth improves taste. The authors said prospective studies are needed to confirm it.
What does this mean for you?
Taste changes are not a reason to remove wisdom teeth or to keep them. Whether a wisdom tooth should come out depends on whether it is causing problems or likely to, such as decay, gum infection, damage to a neighboring tooth or lack of room. Healthy, well-positioned wisdom teeth that can be kept clean are often left in place. Our post on whether wisdom teeth always need to be removed explains how that decision is made.
If you do have a wisdom tooth removed and notice a change in taste or numbness that does not improve within a few weeks, tell your dentist or oral surgeon. Our home care instructions cover recovery after an extraction. In Jacksonville, you can contact our office with questions about your wisdom teeth.
Sources
Kim D, Doty RL. Positive long-term effects of third molar extraction on taste function. Chem Senses. 2021;46:bjab032. doi:10.1093/chemse/bjab032. Retrieved via PubMed.
Penn Medicine. Press release on wisdom tooth extraction and long-term taste function, 2021.
About the author. CJ Henley, DMD, is a general dentist in Jacksonville whose practice focuses on cosmetic and restorative dentistry, dental implants and dental care around head and neck cancer. Meet Dr. Henley.
CJ Henley, DMD, PA · 3675 Hendricks Avenue, Jacksonville, FL 32207 · 904-398-1549
Updated October 2026.