Objectives: 1.To provide an overview of the effectiveness of mouth self examination (MSE) in early detection of oral cancer and oral potentially malignant lesions. Materials and Methods: Literature survey was carried out in March 2021 in electronic databases such as PubMed SCOPUS, EMBASE, COCHRANRE library, Science Direct using key words such as Mouth self examination, self mouth examination, oral cancer screening, etc... and a manual search was also done using the cross references and textbooks. Articles published in English language from 2000 to March 2021 which fulfilled the objectives of the study were included. The searches revealed 741 articles out of which 23 were selected after reading the full text articles. Results: The review of 23 articles revealed that mouth self examination (MSE) is one of the easiest and least expensive methods of identifying the lesions at the earliest stage by an individual where a specialist can be consulted if any suspicious lesions are found in the oral cavity. MSE has been advocated for early detection of oral cancers and can be very effective if performed by an individual accurately. MSE has low sensitivity. The sensitivity ranged from 8.6% to 43%. MSE demonstrated high specificity when compared to sensitivity. The specificity of MSE ranged from 44% to 99%. Conclusions: Mouth self examination is a good tool for identifying the suspicious lesions in the oral cavity and it can aid in early detection of oral cancer and oral potentially malignant disorders.