Introduction: Human saliva consists of a vast arsenal of secretory products with huge information potential useful for the detection of certain diseases. The easy availability and the specificity of biomarkers make them an important clinical tool as a diagnostic method. Objective: By means of a bibliographic review, verify the use of saliva as a diagnostic method for oral and systemic diseases. Methods: A bibliographic search was conducted in the online database PubMed for papers published in English from 2013 to September 2018, using the search terms "saliva", "biomarkers" and "diagnosis". Papers written in English in the last five years were selected. Of the 245 papers obtained, the study considered 17. Data analysis and integration: It was found that saliva may be used as a diagnostic method for a variety of diseases. These include bacterial diseases such as dental caries, by detection of Streptococcus mutans and Lactobacillus spp.; autoimmune diseases such as Sj??gren's syndrome, indicated not only by the decrease in salivary flow, but also by the increase in the concentration of sodium, chlorine, immunoglobulin A (IgA), immunoglobulin G (IgG), and prostaglandin E2 (PGE2); viral diseases as in the auxiliary diagnosis of HIV 1 and 2 by IgG expression and also in the early diagnosis of malignant diseases such as squamous cell carcinoma and breast cancer by detection of antibodies against p53 protein and the presence of tumor markers such as c-erbB-2. Conclusions: Molecular diagnostic examination of the oral cavity using saliva has shown to be a simple, non-invasive and very promising method for the diagnosis and monitoring of numberless diseases.
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