Crown filed down too much?

[leomoon]

I had a new crown put on my upper right tooth furthest in the back. When I first got the crown put on, my bite felt way off, it was too high. so the dentist filed a bit to adjust it. on the way home I noticed a sharp jagged ridge on the back inside part of the crown and noticed it was very short crown in general, especially compared to the height of the same tooth only on upper left side.
so I went back to dentist and explained that there was a sharp jagged ridge and she filed more of the crown to try and fix this. also polished it. this did nothing but I noticed there was even less tooth now to support my eating, etc it was short to begin with and now was even shorter. it felt like a little rough stub of a crown in the back. so I went back AGAIN and showed the dentist this and also that my gum was hurting and it hurt when I eat, I said I think too much of the crown was filed away it feels like there is a short stub of a crown left in the back and its still rough when I touch with my tongue. So he filed MORE of the crown in the back. and said oh it's your bite that was off, this should work. I said no it's not my bite!! it's a bad crown - he advised not to replace the crown it could damage my tooth underneath. and he won't give me a refund. so any suggestions on what to do now? i'm in pain and don't want to keep this horrible crown in my mouth.thanks

 

[Busybee]

This is a really difficult situation because it's your word against the dentist's and any other dentist will look at the crown without knowing what was there before. Whatever you do, don't let any dentist adjust your other teeth to compensate. Get a second opinion. Explain what has happened. The original dentist should replace the crown, but do you really want someone who caused this mess to do any more work on your teeth? It sounds as though they are using a sub-standard technician because if the crown had been made by someone skilled it would not have been so high. This sort of problem is difficult to fix because you need a record of what was there before to see what's needed.

 

[MattKW]

If you get no satisfaction from the dentist, you'll probably have to go to a local Consumers Protection Agency or the like to lodge a complaint. Or you could go through the local Dental Board. You can't tell if it's the dentist or the technician. Usually it's the dentist - the technician can only work with the models that the dentist provides.

 

[TALDDS]

I think that you should approach the situation with reason. Your end goal is to remedy your current situation, approach with reason and logic, if it is a sub par product any dentist would prefer to replace even if they have to incur a cost. I would approach from a legal sense unless there is no other option to exhaust.

 

[Busybee]

Legally it is the dentist's word against yours. Dental negligence is very difficult to prove, particularly in such a case.