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Objectives A systematic review was conducted to assess the effects of air-particle abrasion procedures on the mechanical strength and phase transformation of yttria-stabilized tetragonal zirconia polycrystal (Y-TZP). Data This report followed the PRISMA Statement. From 1013 eligible studies, 78 were selected for full-text analysis, from which 37 were excluded. The 41 remaining papers were included for the systematic review; hand-searching yielded three papers. The review comprised a total of 44 studies; 21 were included in the meta-analysis. Sources Searches were performed with no publication year limit through November 2015 in PubMed/MEDLINE, Web of Science (Core Collection) and Scopus databases. Study selection In vitro studies evaluating the effect of air-particle abrasion protocols on the mechanical strength and/or phase transformation of Y-TZP zirconia specimens, immediately or after aging. For the meta-analysis, flexural strength data of air-particle abrasion vs. control (nonabraded) were globally and subgroup analyzed. Subgroup analyses assessed blasting parameters (particle size, pressure, or time duration) and the effect of aging. Statistical analyses were conducted using RevMan 5.1 (Cochrane Collaboration, Copenhagen, Denmark). Comparisons were performed with random-effect models at a 5% significance level. Phase transformation data were included only in the systematic review, as insufficient data were available for meta-analysis. Conclusions Airborne-particle abrasion improved flexural strength of Y-TZP, regardless of abrasion parameters and the presence or lack of aging (p ≤ 0.05). Phase transformation tended to be increased by air abrasion immediately or with up to 2 h of aging. However, after aging for 12 h or more, the abraded Y-TZP showed less monoclinic content than the control.