Oral cancer refers to any malignancy that develops around any part of the mouth like lips, pharynx. Oral squamous cell carcinoma is reported as the top three common malignancies in India. Despite the recent advances, oral cancer has been reported with higher mortality rates all over the world. Saliva has been identified to be an efficient tool in the early detection of oral malignancy and reduces the higher rate of mortality due to late diagnosis. The goal of this saliva-based diagnosis method is to detect malignancy at an early phase and which is a hallmark of salivaomics. The current review focuses on saliva-based oral cancer diagnosis. A review of the literature of research papers on saliva-based oral cancer diagnosis was done from articles duration between 2000 to 2020. Data collection was done through search engines and databases. Articles that met the inclusion criteria have been included. Saliva is a complex fluid containing several hormones, proteins, enzymes, cytokines, antibodies, salts, antimicrobial constituents, and is associated with a variety of systemic diseases. Saliva based diagnosis has been used in the diagnosis of systemic diseases and drug monitoring. Salivary biomarkers have been identified over the years specifically for early cancer detection which has attracted much research interest, especially for oral cancers. Extensive clinical applications of fluids in the human body have been found to diagnose and monitor human health. Detection of molecular markers like DNA, RNA, protein markers in saliva can be accurate and reliable methods for the diagnosis of oral cancer.