Scientific literature stresses the importance of quality in services and how healthcare providers and public services should act to achieve excellence. The perception towards quality is based upon subjective and objective criteria. Being aware of the perception of internal (employees) and external (users) clients regarding the quality of the public service provided can be the first step for the development of actions which will lead to some improvement. This is made by the health system administrator, who needs to get to know both types of client perception to better direct his or her strategies and actions, and by the professionals themselves, who will be more prepared to answer their clients' expectations by understanding quality through their clients' perspective. This article investigates the quality perception of health professionals and users in Brazilian municipal public health services. The study detected some disparities and similarities about determinant factors for quality described in the literature. For health professionals, the technical quality is very important, accounting for 100% of answers, whereas for external clients this is perceived through the interpersonal quality aspects revealed by how health care is provided and how they are treated by the professionals.
quality; dental public services; quality perception
