Can I break my sense of taste?

Yeah, temporarily, I think. You ever indulge in a food repeatedly until it stops tasting good? I have, many times. It resets after a while, but the difference, I think, is that the light and sound are actually doing physical damage to your retina and ear follicles / ear drum. You could blow up a fire cracker in your mouth to get that outcome, but that’s not what you’re asking.

What are you over here wanting to eat?

Corsodyl mouthwash, according to my dentist, is not supposed to be used every day because it can permanently alter your sense of taste. Corsodyl specifically.

Thats only 1 dentist though you’d have to ask the other 9 to know for sure.

There’s a specific chemical extract from some berry that makes EVERYTHING taste like Splenda. You can bite into a lemon and it will taste sweet. Lasts a few minutes, fun novelty

you can close your nose shut and wont taste any flavours, except the 5 senses of your tongue wich is neurological. probably trauma or an infection to the nerves of the tongue. chronic nasal allergies can reduce your taste and smell off flavors, if you mean bitter, sweet, sour and salty something .

One flavor is just detecting acid (sour), and so a strong enough sour flavor would chemically destroy your taste buds by basically dissolving them. I think this is fairly similar to the fact that too bright a light will damage the light detection in your eye. I’m not sure about any others tastes or smells though.

Smoking will make you less sensitive to taste. Still too early to tell on vapes.

Covid

Smoke or go into space.

When i smoke too much weed - like as a lifestyle i mean, over the course of months - my sense of smell and thus most of taste pretty much disappears. I had to take a break from being a cupcake taster for an acquaintance because i could not possibly provide useful feedback.

Apparently low-gravity changes how mucus settles (iirc) in such a way that humans have reduced smell and taste in space. Astronauts always want hotsauce in part because everything tastes blander in space.

Hydrogen sulfide deadens the sense of smell. You can smell it in low concentrations, but not in high concentrations. So it is quite a dangerous gas.

Chewing a pink peppercorn can KO your ability to taste for like 15 minutes or so, in my experience. Working with ammonia for a little while will also nuke your ability to smell for a while, which is a big part of taste.

Or a strong odour break my sense of smell?

I’ve accidentally knocked out my sense of smell with a bathroom cleaner before. Not enough ventilation while I was scrubbing things, I guess. Came back later in the day, thankfully, but was quite disturbing. I don’t recommend it.

Can a really strong flavour break my taste buds?

Not sure exactly about that, but there are compounds that will mess with your sense of taste significantly. e.g. there’s a fruit that makes sour things taste sweet: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synsepalum_dulcificum

Yes, Various injuries and diseases can do that.

And taste too.

Try chewing Aleve.

Strong mint can absolutely knock out other flavors for a time.

I also knew a guy who had cancer (thyroid? Don’t quote me on that,) that the treatment knocked out his sense of taste. Everything except flour.