The psychosocial work environment in dentistry is well documented as demanding, but less is known of what makes dentists stay engaged. Aim.The aim was to explore the rewarding aspects of the work as general dental practitioner..Methods. A qualitative approach was used to ensure a deeper understanding of the subject as perceived by dentists working in the field. Among Danish and Swedish general dental practitioners, six informants were in 2007-08 selected step by step to obtain maximal variation of respondents as to country of origin, gender, age and clinical work experience. Semi-structured, in-depth interviews based on Kvale’s principles were performed in the mother tongue of the informants. The interviews were audio-recorded and later transcribed verbatim in the original language by the interviewers. Statements covering rewarding aspects of dentistry were used for systematic text condensation according to the principles of Giorgi’s phenomenological analysis, modified by Malterud following 4 steps: (1) reading all the material to obtain an overall impression, and bracketing preconceptions; (2) identifying units of meaning representing different rewarding aspects of good work, and coding for these aspects; (3) condensing and abstracting the meaning within each of the coded groups; and (4) summarizing the contents of each code group to generalize descriptions and concepts reflecting aspects of good work. The study was approved by The Regional Ethical Review Board in Lund, Sweden Results. The first overall impression of data was that the rewarding aspects of the work as a dentist emerged directly from the clinical encounter; from the relation with the patient and the opportunity for performing a high quality odontological handicraft. Next, the dentists described some basic conditions as their relations to workmates, peers and managers as well as how organisational values and conditions influenced the opportunities for achieving the perceived rewarding aspects from the clinical encounter.Conclusion. The results comprising the moral aspects as essential in the work as a dentist confirm Hasenfelds’ theory of Human Service Organizations. This implicates a need for developing work environmental models with internal as well as external rewards when dealing with human service organizations. Acknowledgements. The authors wish to acknowledge the Swedish Council for working life and social research for financial support.