One suburb south, on Canterbury Road, with on-site parking. Children seen from 18 months, happy gas for the nervous ones, and CDBS bulk billing.
Blackburn North has no railway station and no shopping centre of its own, so almost everything here happens by car, and a dental appointment is no exception. Whitehorse Dental is at 129A Canterbury Road, Blackburn, about 3.8 kilometres south down Springfield Road and Blackburn Road, with on-site parking and wheelchair access. What brings most Blackburn North households to us is children: this is the most child-dense suburb in our catchment, and we see children from 18 months, use happy gas and behaviour management rather than restraint, and bulk bill the Child Dental Benefits Schedule. Consultations are available in English, Mandarin, Cantonese, Teochew and Shanghainese.
| From Blackburn North | Details |
|---|---|
| By car | About 3.8 km, roughly 6 minutes without traffic: Springfield Road, then Blackburn Road, then Canterbury Road |
| Without a car | No station in Blackburn North. Bus 270 (Box Hill–Mitcham via Blackburn North); Laburnum and Blackburn stations are a short walk from us on the Belgrave and Lilydale lines |
| Parking | On-site, and the practice is wheelchair accessible |
| Most common reason | Children’s check-ups, sealants, fillings under happy gas, sports mouthguards |
| Saturdays | 9:00am to 1:00pm |
Blackburn North is a small suburb, 7,627 people at the 2021 Census, developed largely through the early 1960s on land that had been apple orchards. One of its two primary schools is still called Old Orchard. Its housing reflects that history: 83.2% detached houses on generous blocks, with barely any apartments. That housing stock has held on to families, and the age numbers show it.
19.8% of Blackburn North residents are children aged 0 to 14, and 55.2% of local families are couples with children. Both figures are the highest of any suburb we draw from. For comparison, Mont Albert sits at 14.4% children and 46.0% couples with children; Blackburn itself is 15.8% and 48.2%. Only 15.7% of Blackburn North is aged 65 or over, below every other suburb we serve except Box Hill, whose student population skews it younger still. Median weekly household income is $2,021. (ABS 2021 Census, Blackburn North SAL20253.)
That profile is why this page leads with children rather than crowns. In a suburb where more than half the families have children at home and one resident in five is under 15, the dental questions that actually come up are about first visits, whether a small hole in a baby tooth needs filling, what to do about a chipped front tooth from footy, and whether a nervous seven-year-old can be treated without a fight.
Dr Linda Huang takes most of our paediatric work, and this is the specific thing she is known for here: a number of the children she sees have already had a difficult appointment somewhere else, and are treated in the chair here rather than referred onward for a general anaesthetic. What makes the difference is the first twenty minutes, before any instrument comes out.
A first appointment runs a full hour, and the first 10 to 30 minutes of it happens before any instrument comes out. With a child who has already had a bad experience, that conversation is the whole game, because “scared of the dentist” almost always turns out to be one particular thing rather than a general dread. The noise. The needle. Being held still. Not knowing when it would stop. Once you know which one it is, you can work around it.
The tools that follow from that are practical. Happy gas (nitrous oxide) takes the edge off without putting a child to sleep, and it clears within minutes so they can go back to school afterwards. Silver diamine fluoride, which we use a great deal in children, can arrest decay on some baby teeth with a brush-on application and no drilling at all. There are ceiling-mounted TVs so a child can pick a show, and music of their choice. Children are welcome from 18 months.
We bulk bill the Child Dental Benefits Schedule. Bulk billing under CDBS means there is no co-payment on the services claimed under it. Eligibility is for children aged 0 to 17 for at least one day of the calendar year, in a family receiving a qualifying payment such as Family Tax Benefit Part A. The cap is $1,158 across two consecutive calendar years, or $1,132 if your child’s two-year window opened in 2025, so the figure that applies depends on when your child’s window started. It covers examinations, x-rays, cleans, fissure sealants, fillings, root canals, extractions and partial dentures, and it covers inhalation sedation under item 88943. It does not cover orthodontics or cosmetic treatment. (Services Australia, CDBS Guide.)
If your child is at a Victorian government school and is not eligible for CDBS, Smile Squad covers every Victorian government-school student with no card or Medicare requirement. We are happy to tell you which pathway is likely to suit your family before you book anything.
Blackburn North’s main sporting ground is Koonung Reserve on Springfield Road, which carries a cricket and football oval, cricket nets, a tennis club and a soccer field, up near the Koonung Creek and Eastern Freeway boundary that forms the suburb’s northern edge. The Koonung Creek Trail alongside it is disrupted at present: the section south of the Eastern Freeway between the Eram Road bridge and Middleborough Road is closed until mid-2027 for the North East Link, with riders diverted onto local streets. Slater Reserve is home to the Blackburn Vikings basketball club, and basketball is one of the higher-risk sports for a knocked front tooth. A lot of the children we see play at both.
We make custom sports mouthguards from a digital scan of the teeth taken with our Medit intraoral scanner, rather than from a mould or a boil-and-bite tray. The reason that matters for a school-age player is fit over time: while adult teeth are still erupting, the shape of the arch changes, and a guard that was moulded to last year’s bite stops sitting properly. A guard that does not sit properly gets left in the bag. Booking one before the season starts is a Saturday-morning job.
At the 2021 Census, 13.7% of Blackburn North residents spoke Mandarin at home and 6.3% spoke Cantonese, a combined 20.0%. That is a higher concentration than Blackburn (13.6% combined), Nunawading (16.2%), Mont Albert (15.2%) or Surrey Hills (9.8%). English only is spoken at home by 59.5% of residents, and Greek by a further 3.2%. (ABS 2021 Census, SAL20253.)
In a suburb of large detached houses and young families, that usually shows up as three generations arriving together. Consultations here are available in English, Mandarin, Cantonese, Teochew and Shanghainese, which means a grandparent can ask their own questions about a crown or a denture in their first language in the same visit as the grandchildren’s check-ups. Nobody has to rely on a ten-year-old to translate a consent discussion.
Whitehorse Dental is at 129A Canterbury Road, Blackburn VIC 3130. We are open Monday, Tuesday and Thursday 9:00am to 6:00pm, Wednesday and Friday 8:00am to 5:00pm, and Saturday 9:00am to 1:00pm. If nobody in the household has been for a while, your first visit explains what the hour covers. Call (03) 8838 8820, text 0435 025 318, or book online. If you are coming from further around the ring, we also have pages for Nunawading and Box Hill.
About 3.8 kilometres, or roughly six minutes without traffic, running south on Springfield Road, then Blackburn Road, then onto Canterbury Road. From Blackburn High School on Springfield Road it is closer to 2.9 kilometres. No freeway, and no arterial to cross at the end. We have on-site parking, which is the part that matters when you are arriving with a pram, a booster seat and a child who is already unimpressed, and the practice is wheelchair accessible. Without a car: bus route 270 runs Box Hill station to Mitcham via Blackburn North, and Laburnum and Blackburn stations on the Belgrave and Lilydale lines are both a short walk from us.
Yes, and it is a large part of what Dr Linda Huang does. A number of the children she sees have already had a difficult appointment somewhere else, and are treated in the chair here rather than referred onward for a general anaesthetic. Practically, that means we do not start with the drill. A first visit is an hour, and the first 10 to 30 minutes of it is talking — finding out what specifically went wrong last time, because “scared of the dentist” usually turns out to be one particular thing: the noise, the needle, being held down, not knowing when it would stop. Happy gas (nitrous oxide) is available, and silver diamine fluoride lets us arrest decay on some baby teeth without drilling at all. Children are welcome from 18 months.
Yes. We bulk bill CDBS, which means eligible children have no co-payment for the services claimed under it. Eligibility runs from age 0 to 17 for at least one day in the calendar year, alongside a qualifying payment such as Family Tax Benefit Part A. The benefit cap is $1,158 across two consecutive calendar years, or $1,132 if your child’s two-year window opened in 2025, so it is worth checking which window your child is in. CDBS covers examinations, x-rays, cleans, fissure sealants, fillings, root canals, extractions and partial dentures, and it also covers inhalation sedation under item 88943. It does not cover orthodontics or cosmetic treatment. We can check a child’s remaining balance for you before treatment starts.
We do, and they are made from a scan of your child’s own teeth using our Medit intraoral scanner rather than from a boil-and-bite tray. Koonung Reserve on Springfield Road runs cricket, football, tennis and soccer, and Slater Reserve is home to the Blackburn Vikings basketball club. A growing mouth is exactly the case where a custom guard earns its keep, because a child’s bite changes shape as adult teeth come through and a generic guard stops fitting the moment it does. Saturday appointments make it easier to get one made before a season starts rather than after a chipped front tooth.
Yes. Consultations here are available in English, Mandarin, Cantonese, Teochew and Shanghainese. This matters more in Blackburn North than the wider area suggests: one in five Blackburn North residents speaks Mandarin or Cantonese at home, which is a higher share than Blackburn, Nunawading, Mont Albert or Surrey Hills. In practice it means a grandparent can ask their own questions about a crown or a denture in their first language during the same appointment block as their grandchildren’s check-ups, rather than having a child translate for them.
Mostly Old Orchard Primary School and St Philip’s Catholic Primary School on Junction Road, plus Blackburn High School on Springfield Road for the older ones. We are not a school dental service and we do not visit schools, but knowing which school a child is at helps with timing — school-age check-ups tend to work best late in the afternoon or on a Saturday morning, and if we are sealing newly erupted adult molars we want to catch them soon after they come through rather than a year later.