During the last decades, patients have acquired a wide range of legal rights. Judicial courts are administering these rights to actual situations leading to new obligations for health carers. In this article, the patients right of autonomy and the dentists care delivering obligations are examined. Sometimes these rights and obligations are clashing, requiring a decision which comes first. Disciplinary councils are expected to determine in actual situations primarily the dentists obligations or the patients rights mentioned in the complaint. Subsequently, they are asked to assess possible interferences with other obligations and patients rights. Finally, they have to indicate how rights and obligations have to be weighed up.