Oral carcinoma is the 6thmost common cancer in the world. Micro RNAs are small non-coding single-stranded RNAs. They have been shown to be capable of altering mRNA expression; thus some are oncogenic or tumor suppressive in nature. The salivary microRNA-31 has been proposed as a sensitive marker for oral malignancy since it was abundant in saliva more than in plasma. A total of 55 whole saliva samples were collected from 35 cases diagnosed with OC their ages and gender matched with 20 healthy subjects. Taq ManqRT PCR was performed for RNA samples. Mean age was 52.23+13.73 years in cases (range: 17-70 years) with male predominance represented 69%. Risk of smoking and alcoholism was highly significant. The median fold change of miR-31was significantly higher in patients group than in control group, 19.634 versus 1.962 (P < 0.001). However, the correlation between age of patients and miR-31 fold change was non-significant negative correlation (r = - 0.236, P>0.05). Median miR-31 fold change was 19.63 in smokers and 21.12 in drinkers. Salivary miR-31 appeared to have significantly elevated in OC patients which point to its potential application as a biomarker for early detection and postoperative follow-up.