An instrumental planar chromatography method for quantitative analysis of carbamazepine in saliva was developed. The linearity, precision, detection and quantification limits, accuracy and selectivity of the method were validated. The method was linear between 0.50 and 15.00 ng/spot, with a regression coefficient of 0.999. The intra-assay variation (repeatability) was between 5.1% and 7.4%, and the inter-assay (reproducibility) was between 5.6% and 7.4%. The detection limit was 0.18 ng, and the quantification limit was 0.54 ng. The method proved accurate, with a recovery percentage of 109.8%, and it was selective for the active principle tested. In conclusion, is a good method for the quantitative determination of carbamazepine in saliva