The research for change in smelling density between preoperative and postoperative period in assosiation with character and temperament traits among patients who undergo septoplasty

Intoduction: Odor, detected by the sense of smell, may be defined as the effect of trace amount of chemical substances dissolved in the air. The sense of smell is the poorest one among senses searched and understood, probably because it is not suitable to be studied with animal experiments and it is underdeveloped among people than animals. Interpreting the sense of smell is quite difficult and easy to be mistaken as it needs standard and objective tests. Sense of smell is vital sense and is argued to be dicussed via multidiciplinary approaches focused also on emotions ans epidemiologic features. The aim of this study is measuring the sense of smell of people diagnosed with nasal septal deviation before and 12 weeks after septoplasty, and investigate the relationship of temperament and character properties of those people with the changes of smelling sense. Method: 100 patients diagnosed with nasal septal deviation and decided to undergo septoplasty surgery according to the physical examination in Ear Nose and Throat (ENT) clinics of Bezmialem Foundation University Hospital were included. An ENT specialist from ENT department performed the tests regarding the sense of smell [Connecticut Chemosensory Clinical Research Center Test (CCCRC), Butanole-9] both before the operation and 12 weeks after the operation. A psychiatrist from psychiatry department performed psychologic scales and tests [Structured Clinical Interview for DSM IV-TR axis-1 disorders (SCID-1),Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI), Temperament Evaluation of Memphis, Pisa, Paris, San Diego Autoquestionaire (TEMPS-A)] before the operation. Results: People whose sense of smell changed from positive to negative after the operation were predominantly women, while people whose sense of smell changed from negative to positive after the operation were predominantly men. Hypertimic temperament and character properties were significantly different between the individuals who could detect the smell of coffee and who could not. (p=0,037) TCI Novelty Sekking (NS) total had a significant relationship with hyperthymic temperament and character scores. (p=0,019) vi Detecting the smell of soap and face powder differed among certain grop after surgery. TCI reward dependency (RD) total and TCI cooperativeness (C) total points differed significantly among individuals who could detect the sense of soap and who could not. Individuals who could detect the sense of soap had higher scores of TCI RD total (p=0,001) and TCI C (p=0,046) scores. Results: Our findings support that, preoperative and postoperative sense of smell have relationships with temperament and character properties. The significant relationships of the scores of certain TCI subscales with the ability to detect relatively neutral odors like soap and face powder may be interpreted as a consequence of the cross-sectional study method, thus, it may probably be incidental. Odors like coffee, naphthalene and cinnamon, who have a stimulant nature seems to be detected more sensitively by individuals with hypertimic temperament. We suggest that, adopting an interdiciplinary approach by taking the temperament and character properties into account to individual diferences among the sense of smell may contribute to explain the individual variability in changes of sense of smell and satisfaction from surgery.