How to sell dental gold in the UK (crowns, bridges, fillings)

It can be, dental gold is an alloy and not pure, but a single crown still holds real value. Send a photo on WhatsApp for a rough estimate if you would like to know before posting.

Porcelain, cement and tooth are not gold, so they are weighed out rather than paid for. The written offer shows the XRF reading, the payable weight and the figure.

It is the same process. Many families come across dental gold during clearances. Send it as it is. There is no need to do anything to it first.

No. Selling dental gold that came out of your own mouth is legal in the UK and needs no licence, registration or paperwork. The Human Tissue Act 2004 restricts paid dealings only in material intended for transplantation, and a cast crown or bridge is a manufactured article rather than human tissue. Scotland’s Human Tissue (Scotland) Act 2006 draws the same line. Practices and laboratories selling their own bench scrap need no licence either, although their waste streams are separately regulated. This is general information, not legal advice.

It depends on weight and alloy. A full cast gold crown typically weighs two to three grams and is often around 16 carat, roughly two-thirds gold, so one crown can hold a gram or more of fine gold. Each piece is XRF-tested and weighed, and the written offer shows the reading, the payable weight and the figure. Porcelain-fused crowns carry less metal than full cast ones, and some metal crowns are base alloys holding nothing, which is why the answer comes from an XRF assay and a written figure rather than a guess from a photograph.

Sometimes. NHS metal crowns can be precious or non-precious: yellow precious-metal crowns supplied on the NHS normally use alloys containing at least a third precious metal, while many NHS metal crowns are cobalt-chrome or nickel-chrome with no gold at all. Whether yours was NHS or private does not settle it, and neither does colour. XRF assay identifies the alloy either way, and if a piece holds no precious metal you are told so and it is returned free.

Often not. Dental gold carries no hallmark, frequently has porcelain or tooth material attached, and cannot be valued by eye, so many high-street jewellers and pawnbrokers turn it away or quote a token figure. Specialist postal buyers and refiners with XRF equipment deal with it routinely. Wherever you sell, ask for the assayed gold content and the weight in writing so you can compare offers like for like, and be wary of any buyer who prices dental work without testing it.

Normally no. Dental gold sold by a private individual is a personal possession, and HMRC’s chattels rules exempt any gain where the sale proceeds are £6,000 or less per item, so a crown or small dental lot creates no capital gains tax and nothing to report. Selling regularly with a view to profit can be treated as trading, and dental gold in an estate should appear in the estate accounts at an honest figure. This is general information, not tax advice.

No. Dental practices do not buy crowns from patients, and they do not sell them on your behalf. Say before the appointment that you want to keep the crown, take it home, and sell it yourself to a buyer of your choice. Once a removed restoration has gone into the practice’s waste or scrap stream it cannot be retrieved, so asking afterwards is usually too late. Scrap the practice itself owns, such as failed castings and sprues, is a separate matter and belongs to the practice.

You are told plainly and the pieces come back by tracked post at no cost. Some crowns are cobalt-chrome, nickel-chrome or stainless steel with no precious-metal content, and no buyer can change that. There is no charge for the assay, the label or the return, so a no-value result costs you nothing but the trip to the Post Office. If you would rather check first, a WhatsApp photo often narrows it down, although colour alone is never conclusive.

It can be. Some white dental alloys are rich in palladium or platinum, and a few white high-noble alloys carry substantial gold alongside palladium, none of which is visible to the eye. XRF assay reports every metal present and the written valuation shows what was found. Be realistic, though: most silver-coloured crowns are cobalt-chrome or stainless steel with no precious-metal content, so treat white pieces as worth testing rather than worth assuming.

No. A rinse in warm soapy water and a dry on kitchen roll is plenty, and cleaning is not a condition of sale. Do not boil, bleach or scrape pieces, as you risk losing metal rather than improving the offer. Two genuine limits apply: if a whole natural tooth is still attached, message on WhatsApp before posting so we can confirm handling, and amalgam never goes in the post because it contains mercury and is classed as hazardous waste.