Objective To evaluate the association between periodontitis and-509C/T polymorphism in transforming growth factor beta1 (TGF-β₁) gene. Methods The PubMed, EMbase, CNKI, WanFang, and CBM databases were searched from January 1, 1990 to August 8, 2013 to collect case-control studies about the relationship between periodontitis and-509C/T polymorphism in TGF-β₁ gene. Two reviewers independently screened the literature according to the inclusion and exclusion criteria, extracted data, evaluated the quality. Then the meta-analysis was conducted using Stata12.0 software. Results A total of 4 case-control studies involving 342 in periodontitis and 347 healthy volunteers were included. The Results of meta-analysis showed that there was no statistically significant association between-509C/T polymorphism and periodontitis. For C/T vs. C/C, OR=0.83, 95%CI=0.59-1.17, P=0.29; for T/T vs. C/C, OR=0.66, 95%CI=0.29-1.50, P=0.32; for (C/T+T/T) vs. C/C, OR=0.78, 95%CI=0.55-1.12, P=0.18; for T/T vs. (C/T+C/C), OR=0.75, 95%CI=0.32-1.72, P=0.49; for T vs. C, OR=0.83, 95%CI=0.60-1.16, P=0.50. Conclusions The-509C/T polymorphism in TGF-β₁ gene may have no association with periodontitis.