OBJECTIVES: There is no standard method for providing national benchmarks of dental care quality based on patient reports, largely, because it is difficult to create a survey that covers all topics important to various stakeholders (dentists, patients and dental care experts) while being short enough for practical use. The purpose of this project was to use a multi-stage qualitative research approach to involve stakeholders for the purpose of developing a tool that would have value to very different audiences. METHODS: Specific features of dental care were identified by a qualitative analysis of three, consecutive data collections: 1) a search of the dental care quality assessment literature (which was dominated by clinical studies); 2) audio-tapes of in-person interviews with dental care experts (primarily payers and policy makers); and 3) audiovisual-tapes of focus groups with dental patients. Questions to address each of 117 unique features were drafted and organized into 20 topic areas. A shorter version of this question list was created by choosing a subset of questions that addressed just seven (of 20) topic areas identified as the most critical aspects of care by both dental care experts and dental patients. Finally, in-depth, “think-aloud” interviews were used to determine the comprehensibility of the questions and to assess whether they were interpreted as intended. RESULTS: A 50-item questionnaire was developed that describes: Dentist Communication, Technical Quality of Care, Cleanliness of Office/Clinic, Treatment Outcome, Access to Necessary Care, Timely Access to Care, and Quality of Dental Plan. CONCLUSION: A rigorous program of qualitative research can be used to develop a content-valid, concise, yet comprehensive tool to provide data of potential value to a variety of stakeholders. Subsequent research will evaluate the statistical precision of data provided by this questionnaire in a pilot sample of approximately 2100 dental patients.