Is dental gold worth anything?

Yes, dental gold is worth real money: crowns, bridges, inlays and some older fillings are made from a gold alloy, and that gold carries melt value exactly like jewelry or scrap. It is one of the most overlooked sources of gold in the average household, because it arrives in a small envelope from the dentist, looks nothing like a coin or a ring, and is often assumed to be worthless once it has come out of a mouth. It is not.

What dental gold is made of

Dental labs use gold because it is biocompatible, does not corrode and can be cast precisely. Pure gold is too soft for chewing, so it is alloyed with metals such as palladium, platinum, silver, copper and zinc for strength. Depending on the lab and the era, the gold content typically lands somewhere between 10k and 22k, with many crowns in the 14k to 16k range. Older restorations from the mid-1900s often run higher in gold than more recent work, and some contain palladium or platinum that adds to the value. White or silver-colored crowns may still contain precious metal in a lower-gold, higher-palladium alloy, while porcelain-fused-to-metal crowns have a metal core under the ceramic that can be recovered.

Why so much of it gets thrown away

When a crown is replaced, dentists commonly hand the old one back to the patient, or dispose of it, without mentioning that it has value. Patients then drop it in a drawer, or in the trash, because a tooth-shaped lump of metal with a bit of old cement on it does not look like something a buyer would want. Refiners want it. The porcelain, cement and any tooth material are simply separated out and the alloy is assayed for its precious metal content.

What it is worth

Value follows the same formula as any gold item: weight multiplied by purity multiplied by the current spot price. With gold trading around $4,166.71 per troy ounce today, that works out to roughly $78.14 per gram of 14k content and about $89.31 per gram at 16k. A single crown usually weighs well under a gram once the non-metal parts are removed, so one crown on its own is a modest sum. Several crowns, a bridge, or a mix of dental scrap saved over the years adds up quickly. We pay based on the metal content we measure on dental gold, with the exact figure set by testing the actual alloy.

How to sell it

• You do not need to clean it. Leave any porcelain, cement or tooth attached; we remove it during evaluation.
• Gather everything together. Mixed dental scrap is fine and is valued as a lot.
• Ask for the payout as a percentage of the gold's market value so you can compare buyers honestly.

Bring your dental gold in for a free evaluation or send it through our insured mail-in program; either way there is no obligation to sell. See our dental gold buying page or request a free mail-in kit.