Dr. Lee’s Mentorship Story (Part 2)

The author of the next 2 “Dr. Lee’s Diary” blog posts is my long-time patient and pre-dental mentee student Sofia. I thought it would be best for her to share her patient and mentorship story on this blog. So… without further ado, here’s Sofia!

A Mentorship Born from Trust

I’ve been a lifelong patient of Dr. Lee. What started as routine checkups slowly turned into meaningful conversations—first out of curiosity, then with growing interest in the field of dentistry. When I shared that I was thinking about exploring it more seriously, he didn’t hesitate. He brought me into his clinical world, letting me shadow him whilst I was still in high school. That small act of trust—letting a student just beginning to figure things out step into that space—turned into the foundation of a mentorship that has shaped my path ever since.

The Challenge for Ottawa's Pre-Dental Students

Spending time in the clinic made something increasingly clear: for pre-dental students in Ottawa, real hands-on dental experience is seldom available. There is no dental school here, and no structured pipeline for exposure. In contrast, pre-dental students in cities like Toronto or Montreal often benefit from access to simulation labs, pre-clinical workshops, volunteer roles in teaching clinics, formal research assistantships, and immersive summer programs—resources that remain largely out of reach for students in Ottawa. Often, the best we could hope for was shadowing—and even that was, in many of my experiences, passive. You’d watch. You’d listen. You’d take notes. But you rarely got to do.

An Active Approach to Learning

That was never the case with Dr. Melvin Lee. From the very beginning, he invited me not just to observe, but to be actively engaged in the clinical setting. He took the time to explain procedures, encouraged me to ask questions, and created an environment where I felt welcomed and involved. Those experiences were foundational. They made me feel trusted, and genuinely part of the clinical space.

Drilling Deeper: The Global Pankey Study Club

That experience deepened when Dr. Lee invited me to attend the Global Pankey Study Club during the pandemic. I joined virtually at first. The meetings brought together dentists from around the world to exchange cases, challenge one another, and reflect on their clinical philosophies. When the club returned to in-person meetings here in Ottawa, I kept attending. Over time, I began to notice a shift—not just in the way I learned, but in the way I engaged with the material. I started to grasp the kinds of thought processes that guide clinical decisions. I had begun to drill deeper into what it truly means to be a dentist.

Posing a New Question

It was around that time that Dr. Lee and I kept returning to the same question: what if something like this existed for students? A space that wasn’t just about watching but developing our skills. One where we could begin building not just knowledge, but habits, perspective, and precision.

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