Nanomaterials (NMs) have increasingly been used for the diagnosis and treatment of head and neck cancers (HNCs) over the past decade. HNCs can easily infiltrate surrounding tissues and form distant metastases, meaning that most patients with HNC are diagnosed at an advanced stage and often have a poor prognosis. Since NMs can be used to deliver various agents, including imaging agents, drugs, genes, vaccines, radiosensitisers, and photosensitisers, they play a crucial role in the development of novel technologies for the diagnosis and treatment of HNCs. Indeed, NMs have been reported to enhance delivery efficiency and improve the prognosis of patients with HNC by allowing targeted delivery, controlled release, responses to stimuli, and the delivery of multiple agents. In this review, we consider recent advances in NMs that could be used to improve the diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis of patients with HNC and the potential for future research.© 2022 The Authors.