Objective: To investigate the inter-relationships between perceived oral health (OH) condition, self-satisfaction with OH, oral health-related quality of life (OHQoL) and clinical OH condition in Hong Kong Chinese elderly. Methods: Southern Chinese elders aged 60-80 years were interviewed to find out their perceived OH condition, self-satisfaction with OH and OHQoL. The Oral Health Impact Profile (OHIP) questionnaire was adopted for measuring OHQoL. A clinical examination was conducted to assess the tooth and periodontal conditions of the elders. A structural Equation Modeling (SEM) approach was used to calculate correlations simultaneously between perceived OH condition, self-satisfaction with OH, OHQoL and clinical OH condition. Results: 268 institutionalized elders (IE) and 318 community-dwelling elders (CDE) were interviewed and examined clinically. Positive correlations were found between perceived OH condition and self-satisfaction with OH (r=0.67 for both IE and CDE, p<0.05), between perceived OH condition and OHQoL (IE: r=0.61; CDE: r=0.44, p<0.05), and between self-satisfaction with OH and OHQoL (IE: r=0.64; CDE: r=0.58, p<0.05). There were also weak correlations between OHQoL and clinical OH condition (IE: r=0.16; CDE: r=0.20, p<0.05) and between self-satisfaction with OH and clinical OH for CDE only (r=0.18, p<0.05). However, no statistically significant correlation was found between perceived OH condition and clinical OH condition. Conclusion: Significant inter-relationships were found between the four parameters studied. Furthermore, the relationships were different between the two elderly groups.