The objectives of this analysis were to describe the dental service use pattern of the 35-44- and 65-74-yr-old age groups and to determine to what extent this pattern could be explained by selected sociodemographic and attitudinal variables. The study populations comprised 398 35-44-yr-old and 559 65-74-yr-old Hong Kong Chinese. Use of dental services was determined on the basis of the respondents' own perception of the regularity of their dental visits and by the time since the last dental visit. The younger groups was categorized into regular users, irregular users, and nonusers, and the older group was categorized into three groups according to last dental visit (within 2 yr, 2-5-yr, 5 yr or more). A modification of the Andersen and Newman model for individual determinants of health care use was used as the framework for a logistic regression analysis. Predisposing variables were sex, education, occupation, attitudes, knowledge, preventive orientation, and dental anxiety; enabling variables were Family Possession Index, income, family support and access to a dental programme; need variables were perceived conditions of teeth, dental problems, dental pain, need for treatment, normative need for treatment, and denture wearing. In general, use of dental services was low. For the 35-44-yr-olds, the best regression model (sensitivity: 62%, specificity: 95%, overall correct classification: 88%) indicated that there was an increased probability of having a regular dental care pattern if respondents were prevention oriented, had access to a dental benefit programme, had not experienced pain, had a higher income, perceived their teeth as fair or poor, and perceived a need of treatment.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)