Dental Anxiety and Phobia
Our Chermside Dental Care team genuinely understands and empathizes with our patients that have dental anxiety. It can be called all sorts of things including dental fear, stress or anxiety, and is often as a result of a variety of previous personal experiences from both dental and general life events.
Dental anxiety can affect your oral health. It results in avoidance and irregular dental visits, which often results in the worsening of dental diseases and a greater need for complex dental care. Furthermore, it can feed the ‘vicious cycle of dental anxiety’.
Here at Chermside Dental Care, our team firmly believes in regular visits so we only need simple and less invasive treatments for you.
We welcome you, regardless of your level of anxiety or phobia, to come and see us. Dental anxiety, in all its forms, can affect people of any age. We are sympathetic and understanding of this, and are well prepared to help.
Our Approach
Our preferred pathway is to sit down and discuss everything dental and non-dental with you. We will identify any trigger points to avoid, and to explain all options to you so there are no surprises. We also are big fans of techniques such as deep breathing and distraction techniques. You can be rest assured that our experienced and gentle dentists will perform your dental care with complete professionalism and competency. To help us provide world class dental care, we have all the latest technology in the form of 3D CT x-rays, 3D scanners, microscopes and more all on-site.
For those procedures that you might feel are too much, we also offer happy gas, and IV sedation with our visiting specialist anaesthetist.
Photo above: A young child overcoming his fears and successfully having his teeth fixed after an unexpected accident.
Chermside's gentle dental team
Dr Gary Chun
Dr Gary Chun
Senior Dentist | BDSc (UQ)
Dr Gary is the most senior associate dentist at Chermside Dental with over 18 years tenure. Gary is a wealth of dental knowledge and a calming presence at the practice. Moreover, Gary is well known for his sense of humour and gentle touch. To our other dentists, Gary is admired for having excellent clinical hands, achieving beautiful outcomes for his patients.
Over such a long career in Dentistry, its hard to think of something Gary doesn’t do. Experience and quality dental care is what Gary provides for all of his patients. Gary’s skills in the area of aesthetic and cosmetic dentistry is second to none, regularly giving patients beautiful new smiles through veneers and invisalign. Gary has been a past University of Queensland clinical supervisor for dentistry.
Gary also has a keen interest in dental sleep appliances including SomnoMed (platinum provider). Gary also provides sedation dentistry using happy gas for his more anxious patients.
Gary is a dedicated family man, with a lovely wife and two children, spending the majority of his time outside of work with his family.
Dr Timothy Fong
Dr Timothy Fong
Senior Dentist | BDSc (UQ)
Tim is one of our long-term, senior dentists at Chermside Dental Care. Known for being both affable and knowledgeable, Tim has been a valued part of our experienced team since 2014.
Tim graduated Dentistry from The University of Queensland in 2010 and offers a broad range of dental treatment including family dental care, cosmetic dentistry, toothache management and surgical tooth removal procedures. He has a loyal following of patients who value his technical excellence, gentle nature and sense of humour.
Outside of work, Tim enjoys spending time with his wife, family and friends as well as playing his weekly game of touch football.
Dr Amy Winner
Dr Amy Winner
Senior Dentist | BDSc (UQ) GradCertPsych (JCU)
Amy is a valued member of the team for her compassion, bubbly nature and dental proficiency. Amy graduated from the University of QLD in 2010 and has worked many years in private practice. Amy particularly enjoys working with children, and helping their first visits enjoyable and memorable.
Amy’s patients appreciate her for her calming and friendly nature, but also for her attention to their individual needs and concerns. Children’s Dentistry is Amy’s passion. Amy holds a graduate certificate in psychology specialising in early childhood development and anxiety disorders. Amy is also proficient in all fields of dentistry and thoroughly enjoys aesthetic procedures, completing a short course in London on aesthetic dentistry in 2013 (LonDEC). She has considerable experience in tooth removal and helping patients in acute pain, and is particularly adept at removing wisdom teeth.
When Amy is not operating as a dentist, she enjoys teaching kids in music, performing on-stage as well as spending time with her family.
Dr Evelyn Ong
Dr Evelyn Ong
Senior Dentist | BDSc (UQ)
*Currently on maternity leave as of January 2024*
Dr. Evelyn is a valued dentist here at Chermside Dental and has lived and worked locally for many years. Evelyn graduated from the University of Queensland with a Bachelor of Dental Sciences degree in 2010 and joined our team in 2017. Evelyn is a member of the Australian Dental Association, regularly attending professional development courses and education seminars to keep up to date with changes in the profession.
Evelyn is highly regarded by both her peers and patients for being very technically capable, achieving great results and being gentle, patient and kind.
Evelyn is passionate about her dentistry and focuses on a holistic approach to patient treatment, with emphasis on preventative dentistry. Evelyn also takes special interest in treating young children. A common goal Evelyn strives to achieve with her patients is to help them maintain healthy smiles for life.
Outside of dentistry, you will find Evelyn spending time with her family and friends.
Dr Julia Jeffers
Dr Julia Jeffers
Senior Dentist | BDSc (UQ)
*Dr Julia is currently on maternity leave until further notice*
Julia is a valued senior associate dentist of the Chermside Dental Care team. Julia is well know for her gentle, thorough and conservative approach to patient’s oral health.
Julia is Australian-Chinese and graduated from the University of Queensland with our principal dentist. Julia understands that visiting the dentist can be daunting and endeavours to make your experience a pleasant one. Her special interests include aesthetic reconstruction, temporomandibular joint disorder (TMD), children’s airway and jaw development, and oral surgery including implants. Nonetheless, she enjoys all areas of dentistry and is always happy to help with your concern.
Julia’s ideal weekend will be spent hiking in a national park, trailing behind her towering husband and learning the art of bird-watching.
Dr Stephanie Chin
Dr Stephanie Chin
Senior Dentist | BDS, Grad Cert Dent Sleep Medicine
Stephanie is a valued dentist within our team who is known for her great bedside manner, easy-going personality and commitment to further learning.
Stephanie has considerable experience working with children and enjoys paediatric dentistry.
Stephanie has completed a post graduate certificate in dental sleep medicine. She has a keen interest in a dentist’s role within a multidisciplinary team to manage sleep apnoea and improve a patient’s sleep quality.
Outside of dentistry, Stephanie loves being active, listening to podcasts and catching up with friends and family.
