Mandarin, Cantonese, Teochew, Shanghainese and English, a short run east on the same train line, and wisdom teeth handled in our own chairs rather than referred on.
More Box Hill residents speak Mandarin at home than speak English only: 33.9% against 32.5% at the 2021 Census, with Cantonese spoken by a further 8.5%. Whitehorse Dental at 129A Canterbury Road, Blackburn has three Mandarin-speaking dentists, and also covers Cantonese, Teochew, Shanghainese and English, which means the treatment plan, the risks and the cost get discussed in the language you actually think in. Box Hill is also a young suburb, with more than a quarter of residents in their twenties, and the treatment that follows from that is wisdom teeth, done here in our own chairs by Dr Kerry Chen. Box Hill station to Blackburn is a short run east on the same line, and there is on-site parking if you drive.
| From Box Hill | Details |
|---|---|
| By train | Box Hill station, beneath Box Hill Central, east to Blackburn on the Belgrave and Lilydale lines, then a short walk |
| By bus | The Box Hill Central rooftop interchange has 13 bays and around 20 routes; route 735 runs the Canterbury Road corridor |
| By car | About 2.9 km, roughly 4 minutes without traffic, via Middleborough Road to Canterbury Road; on-site parking |
| Languages | Mandarin, Cantonese, Teochew, Shanghainese and English |
| Saturdays | 9:00am to 1:00pm |
At the 2021 Census, 33.9% of Box Hill residents spoke Mandarin at home and 8.5% spoke Cantonese, a combined 42.4%, against 32.5% who spoke English only. Vietnamese, Korean and Hindi follow. 46.6% of residents reported Chinese ancestry, 29.5% were born in China and 6.4% in Malaysia. (ABS 2021 Census, Box Hill SAL20314.)
No other suburb in our catchment looks like that. In Blackburn, 69.1% of residents speak English only at home; in Surrey Hills it is 77.2%. Box Hill is the one place nearby where a practice that only operates in English is, for a large share of the population, operating in a second language.
Three of our dentists speak Mandarin: Dr Melissa Huang (BDSc Hons, University of Melbourne), Dr Linda Huang and Dr Annie Tong. Between the team we also cover Cantonese, Teochew and Shanghainese. The part that matters is not the greeting at reception. It is the middle of a consultation, when someone needs to say “I do not want that one, I want the cheaper one and I want to know what I am giving up”, or an older parent needs to ask whether a bridge or a denture will suit them better. Those conversations do not survive translation through an adult child very well.
Box Hill’s median age is 33, and 27.9% of residents are aged 20 to 29 (13.2% aged 20 to 24 and 14.7% aged 25 to 29), rising to roughly 39% once the 30 to 34 band is included. Only 9.6% are children under 15, and 48.5% of families are couples without children. More than half of dwellings, 53.1%, are apartments. (ABS 2021 Census, SAL20314.)
That age band is the wisdom-teeth years. The usual path is that a general dentist takes an OPG, looks at it, writes a referral, and you wait for an oral surgeon. Dr Kerry Chen, who trained at the University of Melbourne, does all the complex extractions in this practice, including surgical wisdom teeth. The OPG we take is the one used to plan the removal, and the clinician who assessed the tooth is the one who takes it out. Happy gas is available, and oral premedication is an option. To be plain: we do not offer general anaesthetic or hospital sedation, and if a tooth genuinely belongs in a theatre we will tell you.
Worth reading first: signs your wisdom teeth are coming through, simple versus surgical extraction and the recovery timeline.
Box Hill’s median weekly household income at the 2021 Census was $1,267, well below the suburbs around it, which reflects a population weighted towards students and people early in their working lives. Cost is therefore not a footnote here, and vagueness about it is not a kindness.
Every treatment plan is written down with the ADA item numbers on it before you agree to anything. HICAPS is on site, so if you hold private extras cover we can check your rebate on the spot rather than after the fact. We are an HCF More For Teeth preferred provider and accept DVA cards, and we bulk bill the Child Dental Benefits Schedule for eligible children, which means no co-payment on the services claimed under it.
On the public system: Victoria’s public dental care is delivered through Dental Health Services Victoria and is limited to concession-card holders and specified priority groups. Specialist oral surgery sits with the Royal Dental Hospital Melbourne in Carlton, and routine cases join a waiting list. If you are eligible, that is a genuine option and we will say so.
Box Hill carries a lot of dental advertising, so it is worth being explicit. We do no orthodontics of any kind: no braces, no clear aligners, no Invisalign. We do no implant surgery; Dr Melissa Huang assesses and plans, refers the placement to a clinician who does that work, then restores the implant afterwards, and she does make implant-retained dentures. We do no botox and no dermal fillers. What we do is restorative and preventive: crowns, bridges, inlays and onlays in e.max, zirconia, gold and porcelain-fused-to-metal, root canal treatment in house, gum disease treatment, veneers, whitening, children’s dentistry and surgical extractions.
Box Hill sits about 14 kilometres east of the CBD and is a designated Metropolitan Activity Centre, which is a planning way of saying it is the transport hub for this part of Melbourne. Box Hill station runs directly beneath Box Hill Central on the Belgrave and Lilydale lines, tram route 109 has its eastern terminus here, and the rooftop bus interchange has 13 bays and around 20 routes. A Suburban Rail Loop station is under construction and expected to open in 2035.
For a dental appointment the useful version is short. Blackburn is a short run east on the line you are already on, and the practice is a short walk from Blackburn station. If you drive it is about 2.9 kilometres via Middleborough Road onto Canterbury Road, with on-site parking and wheelchair access when you arrive. Other Box Hill landmarks people navigate by: Box Hill Hospital at 8 Arnold Street, Epworth Eastern at 1 Arnold Street, Box Hill Institute at 465 Elgar Road, and Aqualink Box Hill on Surrey Drive.
Whitehorse Dental is at 129A Canterbury Road, Blackburn VIC 3130, 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. A first visit is a full hour and can be held entirely in Mandarin or Cantonese. There is also a Chinese-language version of this site. Call (03) 8838 8820, text 0435 025 318, or book online. Neighbouring pages: Mont Albert, Surrey Hills and Blackburn North.
Yes. Three of our dentists speak Mandarin — Dr Melissa Huang, Dr Linda Huang and Dr Annie Tong — and consultations are also available in Cantonese, Teochew, Shanghainese and English. This is not a small point in Box Hill: at the 2021 Census, 33.9% of Box Hill residents spoke Mandarin at home and 32.5% spoke English only, so Mandarin is the more commonly spoken of the two. Cantonese adds another 8.5%. What it means practically is that the treatment plan, the risks, the alternatives and the cost can all be discussed in the language you think in, and so can the questions you would rather not ask through an interpreter.
It depends on how the tooth is lying, and the item numbers are the honest way to explain that. Item 311 is a simple extraction. Items 322, 323 and 324 are surgical, where 323 means bone had to be removed and 324 means bone removal plus dividing the tooth into pieces to get it out. An upright, fully erupted upper wisdom tooth and a horizontally impacted lower one are different procedures at different prices, which is why nobody can quote you properly over the phone. We take an OPG (item 037), assess it, and give you a written estimate with the item numbers on it before you agree to anything. As national context, the 2022 ADA fee survey reported an average of $205 for a simple extraction under item 311; that is an Australian average, not our fee.
Easily, and with 53.1% of occupied dwellings being apartments, a great many Box Hill residents get by without a car. Box Hill station sits beneath Box Hill Central on the Belgrave and Lilydale lines, and Blackburn is a short run east on the same line, with the practice a short walk from Blackburn station. The Box Hill Central rooftop interchange has 13 bus bays and around 20 routes, and route 735 runs from Box Hill station along the Canterbury Road corridor. If you do drive, it is about 2.9 kilometres via Middleborough Road to Canterbury Road, roughly four minutes without traffic, and we have on-site parking.
Generally not for the tooth itself. Box Hill Hospital, at 8 Arnold Street, is Eastern Health’s largest acute hospital and its published service list covers emergency, surgery, intensive care, maternity, mental health and cardiac care. It does not list a dental or oral surgery unit. A hospital emergency department is the right place for facial swelling that is spreading, difficulty swallowing or breathing, uncontrolled bleeding or a significant facial injury. A broken, aching or infected tooth is treated in a dental chair. Victoria’s public dental care runs through Dental Health Services Victoria and is limited to concession-card holders and specified priority groups, with specialist oral surgery provided through the Royal Dental Hospital Melbourne in Carlton and routine cases joining a waiting list.
No. We do not offer orthodontics of any kind — no braces, no clear aligners, no Invisalign — and we do not do implant surgery, botox or dermal fillers. Box Hill has a great deal of advertising for all of those, so it is worth being direct about it before you book rather than after. What we do do is restorative and preventive dentistry: crowns, bridges, inlays and onlays, root canals in house, gum disease treatment, dentures, veneers, whitening, children’s dentistry and surgical extractions. On implants specifically, Dr Melissa Huang assesses and plans, refers the surgical placement out, and then restores the implant afterwards.
Yes. We are a private practice, so treatment is paid for directly and Medicare eligibility is not a requirement for being seen. Nearly 30% of Box Hill residents were born in China and a further 6.4% in Malaysia, so this is a common situation here. The part that matters most for a new arrival is the first appointment: it runs a full hour, the first 10 to 30 minutes is a conversation rather than an examination, and it can be held entirely in Mandarin or Cantonese. You leave with the findings and the options written down, so nothing has to be decided on the spot.