Process Transparency
How We Assay Dental Gold: Our 9-Step Process
From the moment your package arrives to the moment payment issues — every step, with real numbers.
The most common reason dental practices hesitate to mail in scrap gold isn't concern about the shipping — it's not knowing what happens on the other end. What does it actually mean to assay dental gold? How do you price a crown you've never seen? How do I know the number you give me is real?
Those are fair questions, and we should be able to answer them precisely. Most buyers in this space stay vague on purpose — it lets them grade your dental gold material conservatively without having to justify the number. We don't work that way.
This page walks through every step we take from receipt to payment, including a real worked example with actual math. If you've ever wondered exactly how we assay dental gold and turn it into a verified payout, this is the full picture.
Quick Answer
We use a 9-step process to assay dental gold: receive and photograph your package, sort by material type, run XRF analysis on each piece, weigh by alloy grade, melt, fire assay, calculate your payout from confirmed gold content and live spot price, then issue payment the same day you approve the offer. Every dental gold submission receives a written assay report. If you decline, contact us to discuss your options.
Our 9-Step Process to Assay Dental Gold
This sequence applies to every dental gold submission regardless of size — whether you're sending three crowns from a single extraction or a year's worth of lab scrap. The steps don't change; only the volume does.
Receive & Log Your Dental Gold Submission
Your insured package arrives and is logged immediately — time-stamped, carrier-tracked, and recorded against your submission confirmation. The package is not opened until we've documented the outer condition. This protects both parties in any dispute about what was sent.
Photograph Contents
Every piece of dental gold is laid out and photographed before any handling or sorting begins. These photos are part of your permanent submission record. If you ever have a question about piece count or material type, the photos resolve it. Timestamped, catalogued, kept on file.
Sort Dental Gold by Material Type
Dental gold scrap is not uniform. Full-cast gold crowns, PFM (porcelain-fused-to-metal) restorations, gold bridges, and mixed or base-metal pieces all carry different metal content and require different handling. Mixing them would dilute the value of your better material. We sort before anything gets weighed or tested.
XRF Analysis — Identifying Your Dental Gold Alloy Grade
This is the most important step most buyers skip when they assay dental gold. X-ray fluorescence testing identifies the exact elemental composition of each piece — what percentage is gold, what percentage is palladium, platinum, silver, or base metal. It's non-destructive, takes seconds per piece, and produces a precise composition reading. The result tells us whether a crown is high-noble, noble, or predominantly base metal — and prices it accordingly. See the full XRF explainer below.
Weigh by Alloy Grade
After XRF confirmation, each alloy-grade group is weighed separately on calibrated scales to the nearest tenth of a gram. High-noble, noble, and base-metal batches stay separate through this step. Committing all dental gold material to one weight and one grade — which is common practice elsewhere — is how you lose money on your better pieces.
Melt
Each sorted, weighed batch of dental gold is melted into a homogeneous button — a uniform sample with consistent composition throughout. This step is necessary before fire assay can produce an accurate result. The melt weight confirms the XRF-based classification; any significant discrepancy gets flagged and investigated before we continue.
Fire Assay (Cupellation) — The Industry Standard for Dental Gold
Fire assay — specifically cupellation — is the industry-standard method for determining precise gold content and the method referenced by the LBMA for refined metal certification. A sample from the melted button is processed to isolate the gold and weigh it directly. This is true melt-and-assay, not an estimate. The number we pay you on comes from actual gold weight, not XRF inference alone.
Calculate Your Dental Gold Payout
The formula is straightforward: refined gold weight (troy oz) × live spot price × our payout percentage = your offer. The spot price we use is the Kitco mid-market rate at time of calculation. We show the math in your written report. Nothing is hidden in the formula.
Issue Payment
Once you approve the written offer for your dental gold, payment issues the same business day — by check or wire transfer, your choice. If you decline, contact us to discuss next steps. You're not obligated to sell.
Blake Plummer — Dental Gold Experts
I spent years watching clients at the pawn counter accept offers they shouldn't have — not because they were naive, but because they had no way to check the number. Transparency isn't just an ethical choice in this business; it's the only sustainable model. If I can't show you exactly how I arrived at your dental gold number, you have no reason to trust it.
What Is XRF Testing for Dental Gold, and Why Does It Matter?
X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF) — The Fast Facts
XRF works by directing a beam of X-rays at a dental gold sample. Different elements in the sample emit secondary X-rays (fluorescence) at characteristic energy levels, which the detector reads and converts into an elemental composition percentage. It's non-destructive — the piece is unchanged after testing — and results appear in seconds.
For dental gold alloys, XRF is the appropriate pre-melt screening tool because it can distinguish high-noble alloys (≥60% noble metals, ≥40% gold by ADA classification) from noble and base-metal alloys without having to melt anything first. This matters because the difference between high-noble and base-metal classification is the difference between a piece worth $80 and one worth $4.
Why a Pawn Shop Can't Accurately Assay Dental Gold
Pawn shops use two methods for testing gold: acid testing and electronic gold testers. Both have the same problem — they were designed for jewelry-grade alloys, which are standardized at 10K, 14K, 18K, and 24K. Neither method can properly assay dental gold alloys, which have a fundamentally different composition.
- Dental gold alloys aren't standard karat gold. A high-noble dental gold alloy might be 72% gold, 14% palladium, and 10% silver — not any jewelry karat. Acid testing will read it as roughly 14K based on gold content alone, but the palladium adds substantial value that the test ignores entirely.
- Acid testing destroys a small sample of the piece. Even when it works, you lose material to confirm a reading that still doesn't capture the full noble metal content of dental gold.
- Electronic testers can't handle multi-metal alloys. They're calibrated for single-metal purity and produce unreliable readings on complex dental gold compositions like palladium-gold-silver alloys.
- Fire assay doesn't happen at pawn shops. Pawn shops offer against their estimate of what they'll recover if they sell the piece. They don't smelt and assay dental gold — so the offer is based on margin, not confirmed metal content.
- Palladium gets priced as nothing. It's not jewelry gold. Pawn buyers frequently ignore palladium content in dental gold entirely, or price it conservatively as silver. Palladium has traded above gold per troy ounce.
Dental Gold Assay Method Comparison
| Method | Accuracy | Detects Palladium? | Non-Destructive? | Used By |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| XRF + Fire Assay (Cupellation) | ✓ Precise to 0.1% | ✓ Yes | XRF: Yes / Fire: No | Dental Gold Experts, LBMA refiners |
| Acid Test | Estimate ±2 karat | ✗ No | ✗ No | Pawn shops, general buyers |
| Electronic Gold Tester | Unreliable on alloys | ✗ No | ✓ Yes | Pawn shops, jewelry stores |
| Visual Inspection / Weight Estimate | Very low | ✗ No | ✓ Yes | Estate buyers, some pawn |
A Worked Example: How We Assay Dental Gold from 3 Crowns
Here's exactly how a typical small dental gold submission gets calculated. All figures use illustrative spot pricing — your actual offer will reflect the live market rate at time of processing.
Submission: 3 full-cast dental gold crowns
Palladium content in this dental gold alloy would be calculated separately and added to the total. Illustrative example only — use our dental gold calculator for a current estimate.
What Your Written Dental Gold Assay Report Looks Like
Every dental gold submission receives a written report before payment is requested. Below is an illustrative sample — anonymized — of the format you'll receive.
| Material Type | XRF Grade | Au % | Gross Weight | Au Content | Gross Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full-Cast Dental Gold Crown × 3 | High-Noble | 72% | 7.2 g | 0.1666 ozt | $516.46 |
| Palladium content | 14% Pd | — | — | 0.0324 ozt Pd | $43.20 |
Illustrative only. Actual dental gold assay reports include fire assay confirmation data and are issued after melt and assay are complete.
Blake Plummer — Dental Gold Experts
I've seen dental gold assay reports from other buyers that list a single line item: "dental scrap — X grams — $Y." That's not an assay report. A real dental gold assay report shows you what's in your material, not just what someone decided to pay. If a buyer won't give you the composition data, that's the reason they're not giving you the composition data.
ADA Dental Gold Alloy Classifications and Payout Implications
| ADA Classification | Noble Metal Minimum | Gold Minimum | Typical Payout Range | Common Use |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| High-Noble Dental Gold | ≥60% | ≥40% | Highest | Full-cast crowns, inlays, older bridges |
| Noble | ≥25% | No minimum | Moderate | PFM frameworks, some newer crowns |
| Base Metal (predominantly) | <25% | Trace or none | Low (nickel, chromium value) | Older PFM frameworks, economy restorations |
| Palladium-Heavy Dental Gold Alloy | Varies (Pd primary) | Low or none | High (Pd valued separately) | White metal crowns, 1990s–2000s era restorations |
The white crown problem: Many dental practices assume white or silver-colored crowns have no precious dental gold value. In restorations from the 1990s through the early 2000s, white crowns frequently contain palladium as the primary noble metal — and palladium has traded above gold per troy ounce. A "worthless" white crown can be worth more than a traditional dental gold crown. XRF testing is the only way to know before you make that assumption.
How to Submit Your Dental Gold for Assessment
- Request a free shipping kit from our contact page — pre-paid, fully insured envelope included.
- Collect your dental gold scrap material using our dental office SOP guide if you'd like a system for ongoing collection.
- Drop the sealed kit in any USPS or FedEx location. Insurance covers the dental gold shipment in transit.
- We receive, photograph, and begin the assay dental gold process on the same business day of arrival.
- You receive your written dental gold assay report and offer before we request any decision.
- Approve or decline — your call. Contact us to discuss options if you'd like to decline.