• I have 2 gold crowns. What is the gold value from these? – From Rob in Des Moines, Iowa

• I have 5 lbs of very small pieces of dental scrap that came from a retired dentist. – from Larry in Phoenix, Arizona

• I have several teeth and crowns with gold filling that have been extracted. I would like the gold recovered and returned as a single nugget. – From Stacy in Raymond, Illinois

• I have about 10 grams of a three tooth bridge, two gold caps and one gold tooth. – From Matt in Chicago, Illinois

Hi Rob, Stacy, Larry and Matt,

I wanted to address your questions together as they are all about dental scrap to refine. As you may know, gold used in dental products can come in may grades and this grade and the amount of gold used can vary greatly from tooth to tooth and crown to crown.

Because of the weight variance and how the gold is alloyed with other metals, it is a very difficult process to extract the full amount of precious metal from the scrap. Arch Enterprises has technicians to handle the recycling of dental scrap, but it is still a difficult process compared to coins or jewelry.

In all of your situations we would melt your pieces together and analyze the gold content. This will ensure total gold consistency for the assay and would result in a higher payout for all of you.

For more information please refer to a previous blog post, “What is My Dental Scrap Worth?”