Quite a number of people have one or more old dental crowns or fillings tucked away in a drawer. When you think about it, there's no reason why this shouldn't be true. Any dental crown that has been in your mouth is yours. When a dentist quotes you a price for placing a new dental crown or extracting a crowned tooth, the fee does not include a "salvage" discount for existing dental restorations. What's in your mouth is yours and it is your dentist's obligation to offer it to you if it is removed.
As you probably know, many of the dental alloys used in dentistry have precious metal content. Certainly gold is used in dentistry. You might be surprised to learn that platinum and palladium are used too.
It's impossible for you to know what the composition of the dental alloy that has been used to create your dental work is. The alloy used to create a yellow gold crown might run on the order of 10 to 20 karats (pure gold is 24 karat). But even silver-colored crowns (and the silver-colored metal underneath the porcelain surface of a crown) can contain a high percentage of precious metals.
The price of gold and other precious metals has risen quite dramatically recently. In March of 2008 gold topped out at over $1000 per ounce. As a ballpark estimate, you might expect that a gold dental crown might weigh or the order of one-tenth of an ounce. If its gold content runs somewhere between 10 and 18 karats, at even just $800 an ounce, it would be worth about $30 to $60. Not an insignificant sum for something that has no use.
As the price of gold has risen, the business of buying scrap dental work has risen substantially. It's easy enough to do a quick web search and find an online buyer for dental gold. The idea is that you send your dental crowns, bridges or fillings to them, they assay it (determine its precious metal content), and then send you a check based on your scrap's market value the day it is evaluated.
The price of precious metals fluctuates daily, based on the market action occurring on the various exchanges that trade them. So, the price you get for your scrap dental work will depend on current market activity.
Of course the dental alloys you are selling are not pure, they will need to undergo a refining process. Related to this there may be a number of "fees" associated with your transaction or, as an alternative, the company may just take a straight percentage of the value of the scrap as their payment.
Some of the refining company's do offer a guarantee. If you feel that the amount they have paid you is not appropriate, you can simply return their uncashed check to them (within an allowed time frame) and they will return your scrap to you.
Once you have selected a refining company, go to their website or call them and ask for shipping instructions. In most cases they will forward to you packing materials (free of charge) or at least have a form that they will want you to fill out and include with your shipment. Make sure you secure the contents of your shipment adequately. You might check to see what insurance and tracking the shipper involved provides for your package.
Before you send it, you should make some sort of itemization of your package's contents. Possibly even take a quick digital photograph. You might weigh your items so you have an idea of what they might be worth. As a ballpark figure, multiply your item's weight by half the price of gold. If they're worth more than that you can just be pleasantly surprised.
It is not necessary to remove any cement or tooth parts from the dental work. This is a disagreeable job and can be very difficult. Let the refiner do it.
Clearly yellow gold crowns and inlays have the potential for having value. They sometimes have a karat content between 10 and 20. Don't overlook "white gold" items. Even silver-colored dental work can contain in excess of 40% gold, in addition to their platinum and palladium content. At the other extreme, however, it is possible that silver items may not contain any significant precious metal content at all. You will simply have to send them in and let the refiner assay them.
In comparison to all-metal restorations, porcelain-fused-to-metal crowns and dental bridges will have less metallic content. But even these can be worth refining, especially in the case of heavy bridgework. The metal aspect of partial dentures is typically composed of base metals and therefore not valuable. However, look closely at the color of the metal of any partial. Some partial dentures (typically dating from the 1950's and before) were fabricated using yellow gold alloys.
Send this page to a friend.
Bookmark / social bookmark this page.