Selling dental gold: what it fetches
Dental gold carries no hallmark and rarely looks like gold. Yet a handful of crowns often holds more precious metal than a chain – and nothing needs doing to it before you bring it in.
What is in a crown
Dental alloys are made to stay in the mouth for years, and that takes precious metal. The high-noble alloys hold 60 to 90 percent gold, platinum and palladium together; the gold share within that often lies between 700 and 900 thousandths.
There are also alloys that look silvery white and are valuable all the same: those are built around palladium. Colour therefore tells you nothing here. A white crown can fetch more than a yellow one.
And there are base alloys – chrome-cobalt, nickel – that are indistinguishable by eye and are worth nothing. Which of the three you have only shows in a measurement.
What does it weigh? A single crown usually weighs 1 to 3 grams, a three-unit bridge easily 5 to 10 grams. A cigar box holding thirty years of dental work not seldom passes fifty grams.
Leave the porcelain, tooth remains and cement
This is the question asked most often, and the answer is: do nothing. The porcelain facing, the piece of tooth still in it, the cement – we take that off, and it does not count towards the weight we settle on.
Cleaning it yourself serves no purpose and can do damage. Pulling at a crown with pliers deforms the metal, and cleaning with an aggressive agent can attack the alloy. An old jar or an envelope is enough.
What does help: keeping it all together. Loose crowns get lost, and with dental gold every gram counts heavily.
How we establish the fineness
Because there is no hallmark, measuring is the only way. We first remove the non-metal, then weigh the clean metal, and determine the composition with X-ray fluorescence (XRF). That measurement is non-destructive and gives every metal separately: gold, platinum, palladium, silver.
That last point matters, because dental alloys are mixtures. A crown of 2.4 grams with 78 percent gold and 6 percent platinum is paid on both, each against its own price.
You can stand and watch the measurement. We prefer it that way: with dental gold the customer can read the fineness off nothing, and then watching is the only thing that makes an offer checkable.
A worked example
Say: eight crowns, together 14 grams of clean metal after the porcelain and tooth remains are removed. The measurement gives 76 percent gold and 4 percent palladium.
That is 14 × 0.76 = 10.64 grams of fine gold and 14 × 0.04 = 0.56 grams of palladium. The gold is calculated at the spot price minus 9 per cent (a little less for larger lots), the palladium at the palladium spot price minus 9 per cent.
What to remember: it is about the clean weight times the measured fineness. Not about the number of crowns, and not about how it looks.
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Questions about selling dental gold: what it fetches
Do I have to remove the porcelain first?
No, simply leave the porcelain on. We remove it ourselves, together with cement and tooth remnants, and it does not count towards the weight we settle on. Working at it yourself gains you nothing: pulling at a crown with pliers damages the metal, and an aggressive cleaning agent can attack the alloy. An old jar or an envelope is enough to bring everything in. Do keep it all together, though, because a single crown usually weighs only 1 to 3 grams, and with dental gold every gram counts.
May there still be a piece of tooth attached?
Yes, that is no problem and no reason to pay less either. We first remove everything that is not metal – tooth remnants, cement and porcelain – and only then weigh the clean metal. That clean weight times the measured fineness decides the proceeds, not the number of crowns or how they look. An example: eight crowns together yield 14 grams of clean metal after removal, and with a measurement of 76 per cent gold that is 10.64 grams of fine gold. You are welcome to stay and watch the removal and the measurement.
My crowns are silver-coloured. Are they worth nothing then?
Not necessarily: silver-coloured dental alloys are often based on palladium and can pay well, sometimes more than a yellow crown. With dental gold, colour therefore tells you nothing. There are also base alloys of chrome-cobalt or nickel that cannot be told apart by eye and are worth nothing. Which of the two you have only becomes clear from an X-ray fluorescence measurement, which shows every metal separately and leaves the piece intact. That measurement costs nothing, and only afterwards do you decide whether to sell.
Can I sell dental gold belonging to someone who has died?
Yes, that happens regularly, often as part of an estate. The same rules apply as to the rest of the inheritance: whoever sells identifies themselves with a valid identity document, and with several heirs it is sensible to come together, so that everyone sees the same weighing and the same calculation. You do not need to clean the dental gold; we remove porcelain and tooth remnants ourselves. If you first only want to know what it is worth, the valuation is free and without obligation. For a notary or executor we draw up a written report on request.
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Sources
Where you can verify what you have just read.
- LBMAThe London gold and silver price our daily rate is built on
- WaarborgHollandThe Dutch assay office that verifies fineness and strikes hallmarks
Rather just have it looked at?
A valuation is free and without obligation, at a location near you.