The aims of the study were to determine what according to lay people and dentists in the Kuopio and North Karelia provinces of Finland characterizes the ideal dentist and the ideal patient and to develop a proper questionnaire for further studies in dentist-patient relationship. A questionnaire containing 124, five-class Likert scale statements and questions about background variables was sent in November 1988 to a representative sample of lay people and to all dentists in these regions. To extract areas of preferences for both dentists and patients, and to select questions for further studies on dentist-patient relationship, factor analysis was applied to the data. Similarities and differences in the opinions of dentists and patients were also evaluated by single statements. According to factor analyses, the perceptions of dentists and patients were in general similar, communicativeness and informativeness being the most important traits of dentists and activeness, compliance and motivation being the most important traits of patients. However, differences were also found which should be taken into consideration when teaching dentists about the dentist-patient relationship. Based on the current results we also propose a compact questionnaire to be used in further studies.