Just over a year ago I had a cap placed on one of my molars. At the time, the dentist recommend I go with a gold cap since it would have better durability for the tasks of a molar. I had that done but immediatly after it was obvious that the fit wasn't quite right as I could no longer bite down without the new crown getting in the way. I went back and the dentist filed it down and got it to a point where it felt good. 

Around August last year I started to get some tenderness behind the tooth and it felt like my gum/cheek/flesh at the back was now getting in the way. When I pushed on it, it oozed. I had since moved from Auckland (where the orginal dentist was) to Christchurch so going back to the original dentist wasn't an option. It was during lockdown so I couldn't physically go to a dentist but all signs pointed to an infection so a local dentist prescribed me some antibiotics to get me through, which cleared everything up.

After lockdown I went into the local dentist and they had a look and found that the cap had an overhang at the back that was letting food get in underneath (and likely the source of infection) and it also had a pinhole in the top of it, probably from where the original dentist filed it down to make it fit better. The dentist cleaned things up the best he could but said that some kind of remediation work would need to be done - he was very surprised that it wasn't even a year old at that point and had expected it was from many years before.

I called my original Auckland dentist to ask them about it and was basically told if I can't get to Auckland there's not much they could do. Obviously, it wasn't possible to travel from Christchurch to Auckland until a few weeks ago so that wasn't even an option.

Last night, I felt like I had something stuck behind the tooth so I was kinda fiddling at it with my tongue while watching TV...only for the entire cap to just fall out in my mouth! So I now have the gold cap sitting by me with a stub of a tooth where the cap was. Fortunately, the tooth doesn't hurt and it doesn't make eating or drinking a problem, but I was under the impression that a tooth cap should last decades.

I called the Auckland dentist back this morning and got the same thing, I'd need to go to Auckland so they can look at it. I kinda pushed back and said that I can't really get to Auckland and certainly not in the next week or so - I don't think I can sit around for weeks with an uncapped tooth. I asked can they just refund the work since it's failed and then I can get a local dentist to give it a go. I'm now waiting for their "head dentist" to come in so they can talk about it and come back to me.

But I guess I just want a bit of confirmation...it's reasonable of me to be asking for a refund given that going back to them is somewhat impractical, right? I mean, the whole thing cost me $1400 and will probably end up costing similar to repair.