Background: Second only to surviving, pain is of major concern to survivors of head and neck cancer. With improvements in treatment, larger numbers of cancer patients are living longer than before and experiencing the consequences of their life saving treatment. With time it has become apparent that not all of these consequences are positive and pain is one of the negative consequences. Methods: The purpose of this telephone survey was to assess the effects of head and neck cancer treatment among five-year cancer survivors (n=100) compared to matched controls. Two types of control groups were used to assess differences in function and quality of life, friend nominated (n=44) and listed sample (n=101). Results: The cancer survivors reported higher oral pain scores (UCSF pain scale) (p<.00001) and significantly lower quality of life (FACT) (p<.0001) than the two control groups. Questions about changes in taste during the past 5 years showed that compared to controls the survivors reported that sour (p<.001) and bitter (p<.02) tastes were more intense whereas there were no differences between the controls and the patient survivors on salt taste or sweet taste. Thirty percent of the cancer survivors reported a metallic taste in their mouth for no apparent reason compared to 16% of the peer control and 8% of the listed sample(p< .0001). Among the survivors, an increase in bitter taste was associated with increased oral pain, in particular hypersensitivity (p<.01) compared to other survivors who did not report intensified bitter. Conclusion: We suspect that damage to the 9th cranial nerve may have released taste inhibition from the 7th cranial nerve and pain inhibition from the 5th cranial nerve. This is consistent with the location of the tumors most of which were at the base of the tongue, soft palate, or tonsil region.