Background: Skeletal open bite is a malocclusion accompanied by facial disharmony and a variety of skeletal and dental manifestations. Several modalities have been proposed to correct this malocclusion. There is a consensus among orthodontists that extraction of permanent teeth decrease vertical dimension and correct open bite. However the literature shows contradictory reports regarding this intervention. The aim of this systematic review is to summarize the available evidence regarding the effect of dental extraction on the vertical dimension. Methods: A health sciences librarian was consulted and a search strategy was developed for electronic searches in MEDLINE /Pub Med (1946-February 2014), EMBASE (1947- February 2014), the Web of Science (1900-February 2014), the Cochrane Library (2014) and LILACS (1982-2014). Hand searching was performed in the some of the major journals in the field and reference lists were also performed on full texts studies. Two independent reviewers performed the electronic search and data extraction. Results: The search strategy returned 871 potential articles for inclusion. Studies excluded based on title and abstract were 851 and the full texts of the remaining 20 articles were assessed. None of the articles met all the criteria of inclusion. All the excluded studies showed high risk of bias, due to their study design and the lack of control of confounding factors such as growth, treatment mechanics and space deficiency. Conclusions: There is no evidence in the available literature that dental extraction can lead to decrease in the facial vertical dimension in adults with skeletal open-bite. More randomized controlled trials are needed to evaluate the effect of extraction on skeletal open-bite. Given that extraction is an invasive procedure and that there is no evidence, to date, to support or refute it as an effective treatment in skeletal open bite correction, clinicians should attempt less invasive procedures.