Amazon/sedgwick Denied My Injury On The Job, Claiming It’s “aesthetic” And Not An Actual Injury

Hey all. This incident happened in November, 2022. I was working at an Amazon sort center at the time. I’m located in Ohio, if it makes any difference.

I was working with a brand new design of carts that were implemented into our warehouse fully that week. I opened a cart as normal, exactly as I was supposed to, and the tension of the spring exploded and the handle flew out and struck me in the mouth, immediately leaving me with 1/2 a front tooth.

I was dismissed to go the dentist, where they used filling material to patch it up. I came back for my next shift and had to answer a ton of questions. The bill was $400 some dollars to repair the tooth and I asked to open a claim, which the on-site “health and safety” people at work were very against and seemed annoyed by. The lead claimed it wasn’t actually an injury, and it was my choice to have it fixed and purely an “aesthetic thing”.

Anyways, I had to do all this paperwork and stuff through Amazon, as well as Sedgwick. They gave me the run around and made it difficult. Ultimately, it got denied. I honestly forget if Sedgwick gave a specific reason, I had to write and call them several times to get a definitive answer and I am not sure if I still have the documentation.

I gave up at the time. The issue is, it’s been 2 years and the filling has fallen off twice now, and my dentist is strongly recommending a veneer. They’re also recommending to have at minimum the front 4 done, otherwise they say the lone tooth wouldn’t be a perfect match and it’ll stick out and be noticeable, which I definitely don’t want.

Before insurance (if they even cover this), this is going to be several thousand dollars.

What can I do? I’d imagine there’s some sort of statute of limitations on workers comp? I see conflicting information online, but it looks like I might have 5 years from the date of injury. Do I go back to Amazon? Sedgwick? Through my dentist?

What’s the best, most headache-free way to approach this?

Thanks everyone, appreciate any advice given.