Dentistry

Advanced Veterinary Dental Care

Dr. Alberto Schlicht, DVM, M.Sc.

I was born in Chile but spent a memorable childhood amongst howler monkeys and silent sloths in the jungle of Venezuela. Back in Chile, my family moved to a farm in the South of the country, finished High School and then graduated with a degree in Veterinary Medicine at the Universidad Austral de Chile in Valdivia. 

I moved to Vancouver and finished a M.Sc. degree in Animal Science at UBC in 2003 and completed the Canadian Veterinary Accreditation in 2008. and I have been practicing veterinary medicine throughout the Lower Mainland and the Sunshine Coast since then. 

I am passionate about veterinary dentistry, and it has become the focus of my professional life, dedicating 100% of my work to it and I am currently providing dental services to 12 clinics in the lower Mainland from Langley to West Vancouver, performing over 750 dental procedures per year. 

Bad breath and dental problems are not normal but seen often in daily practice, I see dental conditions from puppies to adults, from genetics such as abnormal teething and jaw development to acquired conditions such as traumatic fractures and periodontal disease. Dental problems are referred to as the “silent disease” as our pets cannot say: “my mouth hurts” and yet, it has a major impact on their daily lives and general well-being. 

I have accumulated extensive dental training attending dental conferences, lectures and wet laboratories on a yearly basis since 2015 and currently I am finishing a Certification in Small Animal Dentistry (a 2-year program). 

My dental training is aimed to provide the best dental care and advanced treatments to prevent and/or restore oral health and offer alternatives to “just pulling the tooth”, restoring a healthy mouth and happier life and wellbeing without pain. Thanks to my training and experience, I am highly efficient and able to accomplish large dental procedures in short time hence reducing the amount of time my patients are under general anesthesia. I am experienced with concurrent complex medical issues that will require a specialized anesthetic protocol for pets with cardiac (heart), renal (kidney), hepatic (liver) and Cushing’s disease, diabetes, seizures as well as pediatrics (kittens/puppies) and geriatrics (very old patients). 

Amongst the scope of advanced dental procedures, I am able to perform are: 

• Periodontal surgery – open root planning, gingivectomy, gingivoplasty, sliding flaps and bone augmentation 
• Oral surgery – both dental and soft tissue (trauma, oral masses, dentigerous cysts)
• Juvenile dentistry – retained baby teeth, cleft palate
• Orthodontics – malocclusion, narrow base, deviated teeth, crown extensions, inclined plane, brackets & chain, appliances
• Crowns, impressions and restoratives and bonded sealants on enamel fractures.