Kindall waits 15 years for implant
MEEKER I In September 1995, Marcus Kindall, age 6, wanted to show the neighbor his horse so he got a coffee can of grain.
“We had all of the rideable horses at the house in town in preparation for a bighorn sheep hunt and they all had fresh new heel/toe shoes.”
Older brother Trenton was bored so he went outside to see what his little brother was doing and found him on the ground, bleeding and semi-conscious. Trenton got his dad for help. We figure Marcus must have been kicked by one of the horses jockeying for position for the grain.
Marcus’ dad picked him up and drove him to the emergency room at Pioneers Medical Center, where Care Flight picked him up and took him to St. Mary’s Hospital in Grand Junction. It is not recommended that you pick anyone up after a head trauma, but that’s what happened. While at PMC, Marcus was checked for a brain injury and was further checked for such at St. Mary’s.
Luckily, Marcus sustained only minor injuries, one of which was the loss of his brand-new, top-front tooth. That night, at St. Mary’s, he underwent surgery to repair his upper lip which was split up into his nasal passage. He came home the next morning, once he was able to keep fluids down, and then only missed the next Monday of school. Since that time he’s had two different sets of orthodontics and been fitted with a retainer each time. In preparation for the implant post, Marcus underwent tissue and bone graphs. Then he got the post which required several months of recovery.
This brings us to last Wednesday, July 21 in Dr. Vandiver’s office in Meeker, where the doctor and his staff got to place the crown on the post. It has taken Marcus nearly 15 years to the day to get his new, fake front tooth.
— Melissa Kindall, Marcus’ mom