Selling old dental restorations is really quite simple. Just performing a quick web search will no doubt identify a number of businesses that specialize in this trade. Probably a quick look in your phone book will too. The question is which one to choose?

As I discussed in the first part of this hub (Have you sold your scrap dental gold yet?), the precious metal content of dental work can vary greatly. At one end of the spectrum, if the alloy used to create your scrap restoration was a precious one, it will have a karat rating of at least 10, and possibly upwards 20. This means that the gold content alone will be between about 40 to up over 80%, in addition to any palladium and platinum the alloy contains. At the other end of the spectrum however, a dental crown or bridge might be made of a non-precious metal and therefore have no significant amount of noble metal content at all.

There are a number of different ways by which precious metals can be assayed. By far the most accurate method is the fire assay. This involves cleaning up and then melting down the dental restorations and then testing a small sample of the molten metal. The problem with this method is that it is time consuming and labor intense, which makes it relatively expensive. However it is the most accurate.

You can probably find an outlet where you can sell your old dental work right in your own town. This is a service that you will often see filled by coin shops, bullion dealers, jewelers, dental labs and pawnshops. Sometimes even private individuals enter the gold buying business. However, in many cases this may not be the best choice. Here's why.

A better choice is probably a refiner that offers mail-in transactions. Here's why.

Most refiners that provide for mailed transactions will have websites. Click on a few and check them out. Do they have a lower limit on the amount of scrap that you can send in? If so, you might decide to pool your old crowns and bridges with another family member. Or you might boost the weight of your transaction by including some old gold jewelry that you no longer wear.

Make sure that there is an assay involved. Scrutinize the website and find out how they plan to assay your materials. For a small number of items of low weight, you can't expect them to provide a fire assay. But there should be some mention about how they plan to value your restoration. Additionally, do they specifically discuss handling scrap dental gold and white metal alloys? There are a lot of intricacies associated with determining the precious metal content of these metals. You want an assayer who is experienced with them.

Look for a refiner that has a long business history. Now that the price of gold has risen so much, a number of new players have entered this field. Some which have pretty slick websites but little else to offer (including an accurate assay or a high pay out rate). Take the time to read their company information (or be alarmed if their isn't any mentioned) so you have an idea of who you are dealing with. Don't necessarily be impressed with prepaid mailers that companies offer. If the mailer comes with some sort of shipping insurance and/or tracking, then great. But otherwise, it doesn't take much to securely package a couple of gold crowns. And maybe picking a refiner who has fewer expenses with giving away fewer free mailers will be one who can afford to pay you a higher rate.

One last thing, when you do send in your dental crowns and bridges, don't be concerned that they have bits of dental cement or even tooth parts in them. It can be difficult to remove these items and refiners are used to dealing with them, so let them.

Here are two references if you need more information. Dental-Picture-Show.com discusses the various types of dental crowns. Animated-Teeth.com has a section that discusses the types of alloys (precious and non-precious) used in dentistry.

Thanks to Animated-Teeth.com for letting me use some of the graphics they have created.