Depending on the type of brain injury you suffer from, it can have all manner of negative impacts on your health and your life. Some people struggle with their memory, their mobility and their emotional state. Even within these common areas, the specific issues someone suffers can vary dramatically from person to person.

So, as you may have guessed, it stands to reason that your sense of smell could absolutely be reduced thanks to a brain injury. In fact, some studies have looked at it and found that it’s common in a majority of brain injury patients.

For instance, one study looked at 49 individuals who had all suffered from traumatic brain injuries (TBIs). The median age for the group was 43 years old. Most of them, 73%, were male. They were all given a pair of tests and a questionnaire to fill out.

What the researchers discovered was that a full 55% of the people in the study suffered from some level of impairment to their sense of smell. Most interestingly, about 41% of them did not know that they even had the impairment.

This raises a lot of questions if you suffered a TBI. Is it impacting your life in ways that even you don’t realize? Are the issues more serious than you know? What types of medical treatment can help you? To what degree have you simply lost skills and senses forever?

If you think that your senses — smell, sight, touch, taste or hearing — have been reduced in an accident or an injury caused by someone else, you need to know what legal steps you can take.