Summary
The sense organs give to humans the ability to perceive and respond to a wide range of stimuli from the environment. This allows us the power to shape responses in order to adapt to environmental changes, control our basic needs and survive. The sense of taste has a key role in nurture. Enable us to select from a wide variety of foods, elements that are necessary for metabolism and also protecting from potentially harmful compounds, as of its toxicity or degree of decomposition. This sense of taste is also capable of giving us the ability to select and discriminate food that allow us to feel enjoy and pleasure. For dentists is critical to understand adequately the complex processes of taste, identify the structures involved peripheral (papillae, nerve pathways and receptors) and central (nuclei and cerebral cortices), besides knowing the basic modalities of taste and their respective transduction mechanisms. This knowledge will provide the basis to address properly a situation in which a patient has an altered taste, being able to identify possible causes and take appropriate action to resolve it and / or tolerate if temporary caused by a procedure that may be part of our dental treatment.
KEY WORDS: taste, taste buds, taste perception, taste disorders.
How to cite this article
FUENTES, A.; FRESNO, M. J.; SANTANDER, H.; VALENZUELA, S.; GUTIÉRREZ, M. F. & MIRALLES, R. Gustatory sensory perception: a review. Int. J. Odontostomat., 4(2):161-168, 2010.
