To investigate the relationship between interleukin-6 (IL-6) gene -572C/G polymorphism and the risk of chronic periodontitis disease.IL-6-572C/G genotype polymorphism was examined in 93 patients with chronic periodontitis and 96 control subjects by PCR restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) method.IL-6-572GG genotype and G allele were more frequent in chronic periodontitis patients than that in control subjects (P<0.05). -572CC, CG and GG genotype frequency were 52.7 % , 40.9 %, 6.4 % in chronic periodontitis patients and 67.7 %, 31.3%, 1.0 % in control subjects, respectively. -572CG + GG genotype and G allele were more frequent in patients than that in control subjects (P<0.05). Compared with CC genotype,the odds ratio for chronic periodontitis was 1.88 (95% CI: 1.04-3.40, P<0.05) for CG + GG genotype.The frequency of -572CG + GG genotype was higher in patients with chronic periodontitis compared with the control subjects. IL-6-572C/G polymorphism may be a genetic susceptibility factor for chronic periodontitis in Chinese Hans population.