Most dental practices generate precious metal scrap on a regular basis — removed crowns, bridges, inlays, PFM copings, partial denture frameworks, and even sprues from casting. For busy practices, this material tends to collect in a drawer or jar until someone decides to do something with it. When that moment arrives, it’s worth taking a few minutes to understand what you have, who you should sell to, and what a fair transaction looks like. The difference between an informed and an uninformed seller can be hundreds or even thousands of dollars.
What Counts as Dental Scrap?
Dental scrap includes any previously used or unused precious metal dental material that a practice no longer needs. This includes full cast gold crowns, PFM crowns (the metal coping, with or without porcelain still attached), gold inlays and onlays, bridges, partial denture frameworks made from gold or palladium alloys, casting sprues and buttons from in-office casting, and even old alloy powder or unused alloy that has expired.
Extracted teeth with metal restorations also qualify — though this involves some additional considerations discussed below.
Not All Dental Scrap Has Value
One of the most common misconceptions is that all metal dental work contains gold. It doesn’t. Base metal alloys — particularly nickel-chromium and cobalt-chromium — are widely used in PFM copings and partial denture frameworks and contain no precious metals. All-ceramic crowns (zirconia, lithium disilicate) have no metal content whatsoever. And some “gold-colored” crowns are simply base metal with a coating.
Before sending your scrap to a refiner, it can help to sort your material and identify what you reasonably believe to contain gold or palladium. Older material (pre-1990) is more likely to be high-noble. But ultimately, you don’t need to be certain — a good refiner will assay everything and give you an accurate accounting.
Choosing the Right Refiner
This is the most important decision you’ll make. The dental scrap refining industry is unregulated at the federal level, which means any business can call itself a refiner. Some buyers — particularly mail-in operations offering “quick cash” — pay a fraction of actual value because they’re counting on sellers not knowing what they have.
Look for these characteristics in a reputable refiner: transparent assay reporting (you should receive documentation showing the exact weight and precious metal percentages recovered), payment based on actual refining results rather than estimated value, established business history, and willingness to answer your questions before you commit. Be cautious of refiners who offer flat per-crown pricing without assaying — this approach almost always benefits the buyer, not you.
Understanding Your Payout
Dental gold refiners typically quote payouts as a percentage of the spot price of recovered precious metals. A payout of 90% to 95% of the recovered value of gold, silver, platinum, and palladium is considered competitive for established dental practices with consistent volume. Lower percentages are common for smaller quantities, which is one reason it makes sense to accumulate scrap before sending it in rather than shipping every few weeks.
Make sure you understand what percentage applies to each metal. Some refiners advertise high gold percentages but pay much lower percentages for palladium — which can significantly affect your total return if your scrap contains substantial palladium-based alloys from the 1980s and 1990s.
HIPAA and Biohazard Considerations
Extracted teeth with metal restorations are considered biohazardous waste. Before shipping extracted teeth to a refiner, ensure you are in compliance with OSHA and your state’s biohazard disposal regulations. Many refiners, including Ark Refining, can accept extracted teeth but require them to be properly packaged as regulated medical waste. Consult your state dental board or legal counsel if you are uncertain about the requirements in your jurisdiction.
HIPAA implications for selling dental scrap are generally minimal, since you’re not sharing patient records — but any documentation you send should be scrubbed of patient-identifying information just to be safe.
Get the Most from Your Scrap Program
Dental practices that establish a regular scrap collection and refining program — even on a twice-yearly schedule — find that the income adds up significantly over time. Some practices generate $1,000 to $3,000 or more annually from material they were previously discarding or selling to local buyers for pennies on the dollar.
Ark Refining specializes in dental scrap refining for practices of all sizes. We provide prepaid shipping materials, detailed assay reports, and prompt payment. Contact us to set up your practice account or request a free scrap kit today.