Safe dead time limit on 19Khz PWM sine wave inverter
Try putting a (non-inductive) sense resistor in series with the inductive load and measuring the voltage across it.  The voltage across this resistor will then be in phase with the current, which will be phase-shifted from your voltage with the inductive load.  You may see that the distortion occurs at the point where the (lagging) current is zero; if so you could be looking at the wrong place for your solution.  If this is the case, your voltage's PWM artifacts can't be fixed with dead time.