Recently it has been shown that there is a high prevalence of treatable dental conditions in elderly subjects in Switzerland. The purpose of the present prospective study was to assess the value of an oral screening examination intended to help the primary care physician to determine which patients should be referred to a dental service for specialized treatment. Of 219 patients aged over 65 referred consecutively to a geriatric hospital, 58.4% were objectively in need of dental treatment according to the data obtained by a dentist. In a multiple logistic analysis, 4 oral screening criteria (presence of residual teeth of the patient's own, no prosthetic replacement of an edentulous arch, subjective dental treatment requirement, subjective chewing impairment) were found to predict the objectively assessed dental need with a sensitivity of 93.0% and a specificity of 82.4%. Among the patients with objective dental treatment requirement not predicted by the screening examination, 3 had ulcerations of the oral mucosa. An intraoral soft-tissue examination should therefore be included in the screening examination. In conclusion, simple oral screening may serve to identify patients needing dental care with a high degree of diagnostic accuracy. This enables the primary care physicians to screen for oral and dental problems and to refer patients in the same way as for other special treatment problems.