The Odyssey of Mentoring: "A Paradigm Shift from Baby Boomer to Millennial and Beyond".

The role of a mentor has metamorphosed from the traditional Halsteadian model to a more "mosaic mentor" with innovative strategies specific to the mentee. The contemporary mentor continues to be faced with the challenges of a new breed of oral and maxillofacial surgeons. This article accompanies the reader on an "odyssey" of surgical mentorship beginning with historic origins, followed by a series of definitions of what a mentor is and is not, the dynamics of evolutionary change with respect to style of surgical mentoring, and evidence-based studies in the tools now applied to mentor our future oral and maxillofacial surgeons.