Meet Our Specialists

Dr. Marco Chiarot is a Board Certified Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeon with degrees in both Medicine and Dentistry. His clinical interests include all aspects of oral and maxillofacial surgery, with a special interest in surgical rehabilitation of the jaws with dental implants and bone grafting techniques.

Dr. Chiarot is involved in organized Dentistry serving on committees for the Nova Scotia Dental Association and is a member of the Prescription Monitoring Board of Nova Scotia. Apart from Dentistry, in his free time Dr. Chiarot enjoys recreational sporting activities and belongs to both the Italian wines societie and the Commanderie de Bordeaux.

He lives in Halifax with his wife and 2 daughters.

A native of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Dr. Joel Powell received his Doctorate of Dental Surgery training at Dalhousie University from 1994-1998. He then completed a one-year post-graduate General Practice Residency at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, where he gained experience in oral surgery, anaesthesia, and caring for medically compromised patients. Choosing to pursue a specialty career in Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery (OMFS), Dr. Powell completed a one-year OMFS Internship at Emory University in Atlanta in 2000 then returned to Dalhousie University for his specialty training, where he completed the 6-year program in Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery, obtaining both a Masters degree (MSc) and a Doctorate of Medicine (MD).

Dr. Powell is married with two young children. He lives in Halifax and enjoys playing hockey, golf, softball, mountain biking, aviation, travel and spending time with his family.

Dr. Ken Chisholm has a passion for helping people feel better and look their best. In his anesthesia practice at Capital Health, Nova Scotia, he helps people dealing with acute and chronic pain, and is also a trauma team leader. 

Dr. Chisholm joined the SouthWest Dental team in 2015 and travels to Yarmouth every couple of months to work with Dr. Michel Comeau to provide IV sedation for patients requiring extensive dental treatment.  Appointments are often limited to two or three patients during the entire day.

Dr. Jeanette (“JJ”) Johnson is a graduate of the Faculty of Dentistry, Dalhousie University (2009) and a current member of the Canadian Armed Forces. Following Dentistry graduation, she worked in general
practice within the military for six years, then Dr. Johnson was selected by the Canadian Armed Forces for postgraduate training in Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery. Her residency was based out of the world’s largest and busiest medical centre – The Texas Medical Center. During her time in Houston Dr Johnson regularly treated patients with severe facial trauma,advanced pathology, head and neck infections, jaw deformities, and complex medical conditions.

She completed her residency then successfully challenged the specialty board examination, leading her to now be a Fellow of the Royal College of Dentists of Canada (OMFS). Currently, Dr. Johnson is posted full-time to Canadian Forces Base Halifax as the Atlantic region oral and maxillofacial surgeon treating military patients from around the Maritimes. She works on a part-time basis at Citadel Oral & Facial Surgery as well as SouthWest Dental.