OBJECTIVES: To verify by comparing perceptual responses of smell and taste between smokers and nonsmokers MATERIAL AND METHODS: This study is a cross-sectional study double-blind comparison between two groups of twenty-four people each, one consisting of smokers and other for nonsmokers. Each participant was tested for olfactory diskettes, which originally consists of eight items, but used only seven. The subject should inhale the substance to be identified and choose from three options that they believed to refer to the contents inhaled. As for the application of the taste test, we used the test strips buds, whose method is to try sixteen flavors, consisting of sweet, salty, bitter and sour, organized in a non-sequential and decreasing amount of solute, and identify which flavor was referring to. Results and CONCLUSIONS: in the smoking group, the mean score of smell test was 6.24 while in the group of smokers was 4.48, showing a 28% difference between the responses of two groups. Already compared to the palate, the group of nonsmokers had a mean score of 14, 12 and 11.72 of smokers showing a difference of 20.11%. These findings corroborate other studies showing that smoking causes harm, even imperceptibly, in recognition of smell and taste due to continuous exposure to the smoke exhaled during the smoke, which causes significant losses in the recognition of substances.