What is quality primary dental care?

In the first paper of a series exploring quality in primary dental care a definition for quality in dentistry is sought. There is a little agreement in academic literature as to what quality really means in primary dental care and without a true understanding it is difficult to measure and improve quality in a systematic way. 'Quality' of healthcare in dentistry will mean different things to practitioners, policy makers and patients but a framework could be modelled on other definitions within different healthcare sectors, with focus on access, equity and overall healthcare experience.