A direct run east from Union station, for a suburb of downsizers and townhouses: crowns, gum care and dentures done in a fixed order.
Union station sits in Mont Albert on Beresford Street, replacing the Mont Albert station that closed in February 2023, and it runs the same Belgrave and Lilydale services, so Whitehorse Dental at 129A Canterbury Road, Blackburn is a direct trip east. Mont Albert has the highest townhouse share of any suburb we serve and the oldest age profile of the suburbs west of Blackburn, and the dentistry that follows from that is specific: crowns on teeth that have been filled and refilled for forty years, gum disease stabilised before any restorative work starts, and dentures, relines and repairs. Consultations are available in English, Mandarin, Cantonese, Teochew and Shanghainese. On-site parking and wheelchair access.
| From Mont Albert | Details |
|---|---|
| By train | Union station, Beresford Street, east to Blackburn on the Belgrave and Lilydale lines |
| By tram and bus | Route 109 along Whitehorse Road; buses 612 (Chadstone) and 766 (Burwood) call at Union station |
| By car | About 5.3 km, roughly 7 minutes without traffic: Whitehorse Road, Elgar Road, then Canterbury Road; on-site parking, wheelchair accessible |
| Most common reasons | Crowns, gum disease treatment, dentures and relines, oral cancer screening |
| Saturdays | 9:00am to 1:00pm |
Mont Albert is the smallest suburb we draw from, 4,948 people at the 2021 Census, and it is the one whose housing stock has changed most. Only 53.7% of dwellings are separate houses now, with 35.0% townhouses and a further 10.8% apartments. That 35.0% is the highest townhouse share of any suburb we serve, and it is what happens when generously sized Edwardian, English Domestic Revival and Arts and Crafts homes on large lots meet forty years of downsizing.
The people numbers match the housing. 20.2% of Mont Albert residents are aged 65 or over, ahead of Surrey Hills (18.8%), Blackburn (18.4%) and Nunawading (18.0%), and only 14.4% are children aged 0 to 14, against 19.8% in Blackburn North and 17.4% in Blackburn South. Couples without children at home make up 39.9% of families and couples with children 46.0%, the narrowest gap between the two of any family suburb we serve. Median weekly household income is $2,324. (ABS 2021 Census, Mont Albert SAL21732.)
This is why the page does not lead with children’s dentistry. In a suburb of empty-nesters and downsizers, the dental questions are about keeping a functioning set of teeth working for another twenty or thirty years, and about what to do with the ones that have already been patched several times.
The order of treatment here is fixed: periodontal disease is treated and settled before restorative work begins. It is not a philosophical position. Inflamed gums bleed and seep, and a crown preparation is the exact moment you cannot afford that, because the margin is being cut and the impression or scan is being taken right at the gum line. Contaminate that step and the fit is compromised before the crown is even made. Gums also shrink back once inflammation resolves, which will expose the margin of a crown that was fitted to a swollen gum line.
So an assessment that finds bleeding pockets alongside a cracked molar produces a plan in two stages, not one. It costs an appointment or two more at the start. See gum disease treatment and gum health and longevity, and why gum inflammation matters beyond the mouth.
A tooth that was filled in the 1970s, refilled in the 1990s and patched again since has progressively less of its own structure holding it together. At some point the remaining walls flex enough that a cusp breaks off. That is the tooth a crown is for: it wraps what is left rather than filling a hole in it.
Dr Melissa Huang does the crown and complex occlusal work here. Crowns are made in e.max, zirconia, gold or porcelain-fused-to-metal, chosen for where the tooth sits and how you bite rather than by default; gold is still the right answer for some heavily loaded back teeth. Preparation is done under rubber dam, with air abrasion to improve bond strength and moisture control maintained throughout, and the scan is taken with a Medit intraoral scanner rather than a tray of impression material, which is easier to tolerate if you have a strong gag reflex. Her stated aim is to fix something properly the first time and not have to redo it for at least a decade.
As national context, the 2022 ADA fee survey reported an average of $1,678 for a full veneered indirect crown under item 615, in a range of $1,250 to $2,100. That is an Australian average, not our fee; yours comes in a written plan after assessment, and we can check your rebate on the spot with HICAPS. Further reading: do you really need a crown and what a loose crown means.
We make full and partial dentures, chrome partials, immediate dentures, repairs, relines and implant-retained dentures. A denture that has gone loose over a few years usually needs a reline rather than a remake, because it is the ridge underneath that has changed shape, not the denture.
On implants, the honest position: Dr Melissa Huang does not perform implant surgery. She assesses, plans, refers the placement out, and restores the implant afterwards. She does make implant-retained dentures, which for someone missing most of a lower arch is frequently the more practical answer anyway. We also do not offer orthodontics of any kind, including clear aligners, and no botox or dermal fillers. See dentures.
An oral cancer screening is part of every comprehensive examination here at no separate charge, which matters most for exactly the age group Mont Albert is full of. It is a soft-tissue check of the tongue, floor of mouth, cheeks, palate and throat, and it adds a couple of minutes to a visit you were having anyway. The comprehensive examination itself is item 011, and it also covers periodontal pocket charting and an assessment of the jaws and jaw joints.
Mont Albert is about 12 kilometres east of the CBD and, like Surrey Hills, is split between the City of Boroondara and the City of Whitehorse. Its village centre is the short run of shops on Hamilton Street, and Mont Albert Primary School has been there since 1917. The level crossing works added Mont Albert Village Plaza, where the reconstructed 120-year-old Mont Albert station building now stands, and rebuilt Lorne Parade Reserve.
Since the level crossing removal, the station is Union, on Beresford Street, with the line in a trench beneath Mont Albert and Union roads. It runs the Belgrave and Lilydale lines, so Blackburn is a direct trip east, and it has lift as well as stair access to the platform. Tram 109 runs along Whitehorse Road, and buses 612 and 766 call at Union station. For a longer appointment driving is usually simpler: about 5.3 kilometres via Whitehorse Road, Elgar Road and Canterbury Road, with on-site parking at the practice, which is wheelchair accessible.
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. If it has been a while, your first visit sets out what the hour covers. We are an HCF More For Teeth preferred provider, accept DVA cards, and have HICAPS on site. Call (03) 8838 8820, text 0435 025 318, or book online. Neighbouring pages: Surrey Hills and Box Hill.
Mont Albert station closed in February 2023 during the level crossing removal at Mont Albert Road and Union Road, and Union station opened on 22 May 2023 to replace it and Surrey Hills station together. Union station is in Mont Albert, on Beresford Street, with the line now running in a trench beneath the two roads. It carries the same Belgrave and Lilydale services, so Blackburn is a direct trip east and Blackburn station is a short walk from 129A Canterbury Road. Tram route 109 still runs along Whitehorse Road, and buses run from Box Hill station. Union station has lift as well as stair access to the platform, which matters if the walk from Hamilton Street is now longer than the walk to your old station. If driving suits better, it is about 5.3 kilometres via Whitehorse Road, Elgar Road and Canterbury Road, roughly seven minutes without traffic, and we have on-site parking.
No, and it is better that you know that before booking. Dr Melissa Huang does not perform implant surgery. What she does is the assessment and the planning, refers the surgical placement to a clinician who does that work, and then restores the implant once it has integrated. She also makes implant-retained dentures, which are a common and often more practical answer for someone missing most or all of their lower teeth than a series of individual implants. We also do not offer orthodontics of any kind, including clear aligners, and no botox or dermal fillers.
The gums, and this is a fixed order here rather than a preference. Gum disease is treated and stabilised before restorative work begins. The mechanical reason is that inflamed gums bleed and seep during a crown preparation, which contaminates the field at the exact moment the margin and the impression are being taken. A crown fitted to a gum line that is inflamed will also sit differently once the inflammation settles. Doing perio first costs an extra appointment or two at the start and is the difference between a crown that lasts and one that gets remade.
With a full assessment rather than with a treatment. A first visit here runs an hour, and the first 10 to 30 minutes is a conversation before any instrument comes out: what you want to be able to eat, what you want to avoid, and what has been done before and how it went. Then a full examination of every tooth, the gums, periodontal pocket depths, an oral cancer screening, the jaws and jaw joints, and x-rays, usually bitewings and an OPG. You leave with the findings and the options, in writing. For a lot of people at this stage the answer is less work than they feared, because we will generally recommend the simplest option that gets you to your goal.
Yes. Consultations are available in English, Mandarin, Cantonese, Teochew and Shanghainese. Mont Albert is not the suburb people expect this to matter in, but 11.8% of residents speak Mandarin at home and a further 3.4% speak Cantonese, and 10.2% were born in China (ABS 2021 Census). Combined with an age profile older than any of the suburbs west of us, that means a good number of older Mont Albert residents are weighing up crowns, dentures and gum treatment in a language that is not their first. Being able to ask the awkward questions directly, rather than through an adult child, changes what people actually agree to.
Often not. A denture that has become loose over a few years is usually reporting a change in the ridge underneath it rather than a fault in the denture, and a reline re-adapts the fitting surface to the shape the gum is now. That is a much smaller job than a remake. Repairs are the same story: a cracked or chipped denture is frequently repairable. We do full and partial dentures, chrome partials, immediate dentures, repairs, relines and implant-retained dentures, so the assessment can honestly go either way rather than defaulting to a new one.