Introduction: The III Brazilian Consensus on Rhinitis (2012) defines allergic rhinitis as a nasal mucosa inflammation, mediated by immunoglobulin E, after exposure to allergens. The classic signs and symptoms of allergic rhinitis are nasal obstruction, watery rhinorrhea, sneezing, and nasal itching, often reversible either spontaneously or with treatment, and mouth breathing (breathing predominantly through the mouth, regardless of the cause, due to a nasal breathing impairment) in some cases.

Objective: To evaluate the literature on masticatory changes in children with mouth breathing due to allergic rhinitis.

Methods: We conducted a search of the past 10 years, at Bireme and MEDLINE databases, for articles that covered masticatory changes in children with mouth breathing secondary to allergic rhinitis.

Results: We found 1,986 articles, including 15 repeated in databases, but only two articles met the inclusion criteria fully.

Discussion: We found few studies to answer the question raised in this review, and those studies have some methodological limitations. Most articles claimed no have statistically significant differences in masticatory changes in this population.

Conclusion: A better controlled study (isolating diseases, exposure time), with a larger sample (sample calculation appropriate), would be necessary to examine such changes.