Niche
Is Dental Gold Worth Anything? Selling Gold Crowns & Teeth in the UK
Somewhere in a lot of British homes there's an envelope with an old gold crown or a bridge in it, kept after a dental visit and never touched since. The question is always the same: is this actually worth anything, or is it just a grim keepsake? The honest answer is that dental gold usually does have real value, sometimes a genuinely useful amount, but it behaves differently from a hallmarked ring, and you need to know why before you go looking for a buyer.
Yes, it has value, but you can't read a carat off it
Dental gold is a real gold alloy, but it's a working material engineered for the mouth, not a jewellery standard. It's typically alloyed with palladium, silver, platinum and various base metals to make it hard, durable and biocompatible. The gold content varies a lot from one piece to the next, often landing somewhere in the range of 10 to 22 carat equivalent, but there's no hallmark stamped on a crown telling you which. You simply can't glance at it and know its purity the way you can with a marked ring, which is exactly why our hallmarks guide won't help you here in the usual way.
That's not a problem, it's just the nature of the material. It does mean any figure you're given up front is an educated estimate rather than an exact melt value calculated from a known fineness.
Estimate now, exact figure after refining
Here's how the process actually works, and why you shouldn't expect an instant precise number. A specialist refiner will take your dental gold, weigh it and give you an estimate based on experience and the typical gold content of such pieces. The metal is then refined, and only after refining can it be properly assayed to establish exactly how much pure gold, and how much palladium or platinum, it contained. The final settlement reflects that true content.
Reputable refiners buy dental gold even with porcelain, solder, or bits of tooth still attached. You don't need to pick a crown clean or worry that a fleck of ceramic ruins it. They account for the non-metal material in their process. So if a buyer tells you a firm exact price before any of this has happened, be a little cautious. An honest dental-gold quote is framed as an estimate first, with the real figure confirmed once the metal has been assessed.
Treat the first number you hear as a ballpark, not a promise. With dental gold, the estimate comes before the metal is understood, not after.
Rough expectations per crown
People always want a per-crown figure, and it's fair to want one, but the range is genuinely wide. A single gold crown is a small amount of metal, and its worth depends on its size, how much of it is gold versus base alloy, and the gold price on the day. Larger bridges spanning several teeth naturally carry more metal and are worth proportionally more. Rather than fixate on a headline number, weigh what you have and understand that you're being paid for the actual precious-metal content once it's refined, not for the object.
One upside worth knowing: the palladium and platinum sometimes present in dental alloys are valuable in their own right. A good refiner will pay for these platinum-group metals as well as the gold, which can add meaningfully to the settlement. A general "cash for gold" counter that only tests for gold surface content may miss this entirely, which is one more reason to use a proper refiner.
It also helps to gather everything before you sell. If you've got several crowns, an old bridge and perhaps a broken gold inlay, sending them together earns a better effective rate than trickling them out one at a time, because the fixed cost of refining is spread across more metal. The same logic that applies to scrap jewellery applies here.
A quick word on hygiene
If your dental gold came straight from a dentist it's usually already cleaned, but if it's been sitting in a drawer you may want to give it a gentle wash before handling or posting it. Warm soapy water and a soft brush is plenty. Don't attempt to prise off porcelain or grind anything down, you'll only lose material and you don't need to, the refiner handles all of that.
Use a specialist and be realistic
The pattern here echoes everything else in the scrap world. A specialist precious-metals refiner who deals with dental gold will assess it properly, pay for the platinum-group content and give you an estimate grounded in real experience. A high-street generalist may lowball it, miss the PGMs, or price it as if it were low-carat scrap. Since dental gold can't be read like a hallmark, the buyer's honesty and equipment matter more than usual, so choose carefully.
Be realistic about the outcome too. A single small crown won't be life-changing, but a collection built up over years, or a large bridge, can be worth a proper sum. If you want to understand how any dealer arrives at their number and what a fair share of melt looks like, our guide on what dealers actually pay is a good companion read, and you can explore the wider site from the gold calculator home page. None of this is financial advice, but knowing that dental gold is valued as an estimate first and assayed later puts you in a far stronger position than the person who expects an exact price on the spot and walks away disappointed.
All figures are estimates of melt value, never offers. Not financial or tax advice.