To nontasters the paper is tasteless, to medium tasters, the paper is moderately bitter, and to supertasters, the paper is intensely bitter. When she swabs blue food coloring onto the tongues of her subjects, she can see differences. Nontasters have the fewest fungiform papillae and supertasters have the most. Not surprisingly, supertasters experience the most intense tastes. Since taste buds are surrounded by pain neurons, supertasters also experience the most intense oral burn from chili peppers.
Chili peppers burn when they first touch pain receptors in the mouth.
However, over time, they turn off the pain receptors. Thus, chili peppers can actually be used to treat sores in the mouth. For animals in the wild with mouth pain, eating would decrease pain insuring that the animal would not starve. Unfortunately, this good mechanism can have bad effects in some people. When the taste nerves are damaged, oral pain is no longer inhibited.