John,
I took a fairly good look at proton therapy about a year and a half ago. I had some top folks in the field give me advice. They all said that it was very experimental in head and neck at that time and the numbers were not in in great enough volume to have a great degree of confidence in an outcome that would exceed IMRT. The central issue revolved around targeting and field size.
I really had to think about it before deciding to go for the tried and true approach of IMRT. I have very good saliva use at this time and my quality of life is good (not great, but I survived cancer). I eat fairly regular foods now and even eat a lot of bread (some here have trouble with bread and dry foods). I don�t eat crackers unless they have already been in my soup for a bit.

Having said that, I was almost there with the proton therapy back 18 months ago. I think it�s a coin flip on your part. Get the best advice, and latest data you can and make the decision that is best for you. Be your own best patient advocate and your treatment will be much less traumatic as the decisions being made will be your own.