A household interview survey of 883 persons age 62 and older residing in Seattle, Washington, asked about a broad range of health care and social service issues, including the need for and use of dental care. The Andersen model of health services utilization was used to identify predisposing, enabling, and need characteristics hypothesized to affect the use of dental services. A path analysis was conducted to distinguish the direct and indirect effects of the variables. The results showed that none of the predisposing variables, including age, was a significant factor in explaining the use of dental services. Education had