In my role as an Advisor for the Korea Curling Federation (KCF) - and one of the few people in the Korea Curling Federation who was fluent in both English and Korean - I was requested by the organization's Vice-President to contact multiple World Champion and 2014 Olympic Gold Medallist curler Jennifer Jones. The KCF was interested in having Canadian curling professionals help with the development of Korea’s top curlers, and Jones was at the top of their list of prospective coaching candidates.

(Some “Dr. Lee Diary” blogpost readers may recall from the “Dr. Lee’s Curling Story (Part 1)” blogpost that Jennifer Jones’s home curling club is the exact same curling club that Dr. Lee tried curling for the first time ever - ST. VITAL CURLING CLUB!)

A Nervous First Call to a GOAT

Having never made a cold call to a famous athlete, I was very nervous about making that first phone call to Jennifer: What would I say? How would I introduce myself? What time of day should I call her? Would she just hang the phone up on me?

After several introduction rehearsals and summoning up the courage to be calm and professional while speaking to the GOAT (Greatest Of All Time) of women’s curling, I proceeded to make the call to Jennifer… after a few rings Jennifer answered with a pleasant and welcoming, “Hello?”

A Dental Emergency on the Line

“Hi Jennifer! My name is Dr. Melvin Lee and I am a dentist and international curling consultant working with the Korea Curling Federation" --

“Wait! You’re a dentist? Would it be possible for me to ask you a dental question?”

“Of course! No problem.”

“My daughter has a baby tooth that is infected. I went to my family dentist who told me that he does not pull teeth in his office. He referred me to an Oral Surgeon, but I have to wait 3 months before she can see him for an appointment. While we have been waiting the tooth has been infected twice - for which we had to put her on antibiotics. Can you provide any advice for my daughter?”

The Appointment and a Grateful Hug

After some follow-up questions to help me diagnose Jennifer’s daughter’s condition, I agreed to see Jennifer’s daughter on an emergency basis 2 days after this initial phone call. When Jennifer’s daughter Bella came to the dental office, fortunately she did not present with any infection or pain around a very loose upper left baby molar tooth. Doing my due diligence, I performed a thorough dental examination and took an x-ray of the baby tooth in question, administered the local anesthetic around the baby tooth (Bella took the needles like a champ… I guess the apple doesn’t fall too far from the tree!), and then extracted the baby tooth within 15 seconds.

With tears in her eyes, Jennifer asked me: “Is it okay if you let me hug you?” After saying yes, one of the most famous Canadian athletes in history proceeded to give me a warm hug filled with gratitude and thankfulness.

That emergency extraction appointment would be the start of a beautiful friendship and international curling collaboration between Korea and Canada… but it would also lead up to her asking me if she could become my dental patient in order to make her smile look better.

Read about Jennifer’s smile transformation story in Part 2 of “ROCK STAR Dental Patient: JENNIFER JONES!!!”

And please buy her new autobiography memoir book entitled “Rock Star: My Life On and Off The Ice"