The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship of periodontal disease to self-reported history of stroke in the elderly(60 years of age and older) with a special emphasis on elderly women. Data from the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey(NHANES III), a large population-based cross-sectional survey of the United States, were utilized for this study. Since we have 1,563 edentulous subjects from a total of 5,123 subjects and periodontal disease is a major cause of tooth loss, it was necessary to account for this in our statistical analysis. Hence, we developed a new index called the Periodontal Health Status(PHS) index. In the logistic regression models with stratification by gender, males did not show statistically significant relationship between Periodontal Health Status(PHS) and stroke history. In contrast, females showed some marginal association between Periodontal Health Status(PHS) and stroke history. Further longitudinal intervention studies need to be conducted to determine the temporal relationship between periodontal disease and stroke