This past week I had a minor sinus infection and one of the strange symptoms has been the constant faint smell of cigarette smoke. The smell will occasionally make me cough.

This smell has also been reported after having covid, which I had back in October but had no issues until this sinus infection.

Google says there is a condition known as olfactory hallucinations. “Olfactory hallucinations lasting more than a few minutes to several hours are usually due to a disturbance of the smell system in the nose (olfactory organ or olfactory nerves) or in the olfactory bulb, which sits just inside the skull above the upper nose level. The term for this type of olfactory hallucination is dysosmia. Common causes of dysosmia are head and nose injury, viral damage to the smell system after a bad cold, chronic recurrent sinus infections and allergy, and nasal polyps and tumors.”

Hope this goes away. I hate cigarette smoke.

It wouldn’t be a proper Google medicL search without the obligatory mention of tumors or cancer!

Cigarette smoke is one of my most despised smells. And I even smoked for many years.

If you had a sinus infection, could it not be just the gunk that's in your sinus?

I would try using a netipot.

At least several of us former smokers on Sigforum have reported the exact same thing. For me, it has been random and persistent for over a year after having fairly bad bout of Covid. It’s wasn’t immediate onset, either, it started several months after. Sorry you’re dealing with this, believe me when I say you aren’t the only one, and yes it sucks.

Apparently there are many medical issues that can cause us.

I mentioned having this in another thread, I don’t remember which it was, maybe one of the Covid related ones.

I was dealing with this for a couple of months. I would have it for a few days it would go away for a couple then come back for a few more.

I finally went to Walmart and spent nine dollars on one of those sinus saline flush kits. (I absolutely hate having water in my nose, so that will tell you how desperate I was getting)

I did it, and while it wasn’t enjoyable it was nowhere near as bad as I expected. The very next day it was gone. I did it two more times just to be sure and it hasn’t come back.

Thanks for the lead on that. The next time I go through this, since it has never actually completely gone away and keeps popping back up, I'll try that.