Family & Children

Family Dentistry

Every age in the family, one practice

One practice for everybody in the house, from a toddler's first look to a grandparent's denture adjustment. Children, working adults and grandparents are often seen here on the same day.

Keeping the whole family in one place is not only convenient. It means one set of records, one dentist who has watched those teeth change, and a comparison against last year rather than a first impression.

Why families keep one dentist

Most families need a dentist they can keep going back to. Left alone, decay and gum infection build quietly and only announce themselves once they hurt, which is usually the point at which the repair gets expensive. Regular appointments catch that early. Hocking Dental Care is a family dental clinic in Hocking, and we see children, working adults and grandparents in the same practice, often on the same afternoon.

The part that is harder to see from outside is what accumulates in a file. A dentist who has your X-rays from four years ago is comparing; a dentist seeing you for the first time is guessing. A dark patch on a molar that has not moved since 2022 gets watched. The same patch, if it appeared since your last visit, gets treated this week. Nobody can tell those two apart without the earlier image.

That is also true across a family rather than just within one person. Patterns run in households — enamel that is soft, gums that are reactive, a jaw shape that crowds — and a dentist who has seen the parents' mouths knows what to look for early in the children's.

At a glance

Who we see: First tooth to full dentures, in one practice
Routine appointment: About 30 minutes; 45 with X-rays
Usual interval: Six months, set by the examination rather than the calendar
Booking a family: Consecutive slots on request, so it is one trip
Late nights: Tuesday and Thursday to 7pm, Saturday 9am–2pm
Claiming: HICAPS at the desk; preferred provider for six funds; CDBS and DVA

What changes at each stage of a life

The same six-monthly appointment, looking for quite different things depending on whose mouth it is.

Ages are rough guides. The examination sets the interval, not the birthday.
Stage	What usually matters	What the appointment tends to involve
Under 6	Habit, diet and the first look. Decay in baby teeth affects the adult teeth forming underneath them.	Short, unhurried, often on a parent's lap. Counting teeth and a ride in the chair before anything else.
6 to 12	Adult molars arriving, baby teeth leaving, and the years when fissure sealants are worth most.	Examination, sealants where the grooves are deep, and a conversation about brushing that is aimed at the child rather than the parent.
Teens	Crowding becoming obvious, sport, and the first mouthguard. Also the age at which attendance quietly lapses.	Bite assessment, orthodontic referral if it is warranted, custom mouthguard for contact sport.
Adults	Old fillings reaching the end of their life, gum health, grinding, and wear.	Examination, scale and clean, X-rays roughly every two years, and repairs planned in an order that spreads the cost.
Over 60	Root surfaces exposed by receding gums, dry mouth from medication, and keeping existing work going.	Closer attention to root decay, denture and crown checks, and often a shorter interval than six months.

What we cover here, and what we refer on

Hocking Dental Care provides dental advice and treatment for family members of all ages, from small children through to senior citizens. Our family dental clinic covers routine examinations, general procedures and emergency appointments, and we book enough time per appointment that nobody is moved through in a hurry.

Our dentists cover tooth whitening and dental veneers through to root canal treatment, wisdom teeth extraction and emergency pain relief, and we quote the cost of each before treatment starts. If something falls outside what we do here, we will say so and refer you on rather than attempt it.

Done here

In one place, with your own records to hand

Examinations, scale and clean, X-rays and OPG
Fillings, crowns, bridges and dentures
Root canal treatment and extractions, including most wisdom teeth
Children's dentistry, sealants and mouthguards
Whitening, veneers and clear aligners
Emergency appointments, six days a week

Referred on

Where somebody else is better placed

Braces and complex orthodontics
Surgical removal of deeply impacted wisdom teeth requiring a general anaesthetic
Advanced periodontal surgery
Facial trauma and anything needing a hospital

Booking a family rather than four individuals

What decides whether a family keeps up regular check-ups is almost never the dentistry. It is the logistics.

Four people booked separately is four trips, four half-days, and four chances for something to come up. The same four booked consecutively is one trip. Ask reception for back-to-back appointments when you ring rather than after, because it is much easier to hold adjacent slots than to move them later.

Saturday runs 9am to 2pm and it is the slot families ask for most, so it books furthest ahead.
Tuesday and Thursday until 7pm cover the after-school and after-work window without anybody taking leave.
If you are switching practices, we can request your records and recent X-rays with your written consent, so the first appointment is an examination rather than a repeat of one you have already paid for.
Recall reminders go out before each interval is due. If your contact details change, tell us, because a reminder sent to an old number never arrives and nothing on our side tells us it did not.

What a family actually pays

There is no single answer, but there are three routes and most households use more than one of them. We check which apply to you before treatment starts rather than after, and you get the item numbers so your fund can confirm the rebate in advance.

Private extras: We are preferred providers for HBF, Medibank, nib, HCF, Bupa and CBHS, which generally means a higher rebate and a smaller gap than at a clinic outside the fund's network. HICAPS at reception means you pay the difference rather than the whole fee and wait for a cheque.
CDBS: The Child Dental Benefits Schedule covers basic dental services for eligible children aged 2 to 17 — check-ups, X-rays, cleaning, fissure sealing, fillings, root canals and extractions. Eligibility is assessed by Services Australia and usually follows a payment such as Family Tax Benefit Part A. We can check a child's remaining balance when you book.
DVA: We treat Department of Veterans' Affairs cardholders. Bring the card; what is covered depends on whether it is a Gold or White card and, for a White card, what conditions it names.

Where a plan runs to several appointments, we will normally suggest an order that puts the urgent work first and spreads the rest across two benefit years if that suits you better. That is a conversation to have before anything starts.

Common questions