Scrap Gold Pro
How Much Is Dental Gold Worth?
A box of old crowns, bridges, and inlays is one of the most common — and most confusing — things buyers see across the counter. Here's how to put a real number on it.
How much is a gold dental crown worth?
A single gold dental crown is typically worth somewhere between $130 and $300 at melt, assuming gold around $4,000 per troy ounce. The exact figure depends on how much the crown weighs and what karat its alloy works out to — dental gold runs roughly 10K to 22K equivalent, not pure.
Dental "gold" is an alloy chosen for strength and biocompatibility, not maximum gold content. Yellow dental alloys often land around 60–70% gold (about 14K–17K), while paler "white gold" dental alloys swap gold for palladium and platinum. So the visible color is a clue, but it's not proof of purity.
What's the melt value at a given karat?
The math is the same as any scrap gold: per-gram pure-gold value × purity × weight. At $4,000/ozt, a gram of pure gold is worth $4,000 ÷ 31.1035 = $128.60. Multiply by the alloy's purity to get a per-gram rate. For a typical 2.5-gram crown, the estimated melt value by karat-equivalent looks like this:
| Alloy (karat equiv.) | Gold content | Per gram | 2.5 g crown |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10K | 41.7% | $53.59 | $133.97 |
| 14K | 58.3% | $75.02 | $187.55 |
| 16K | 66.7% | $85.74 | $214.35 |
| 18K | 75.0% | $96.45 | $241.13 |
| 22K | 91.7% | $117.89 | $294.73 |
These are melt values, not offers — and the karat is an estimate until the metal is assayed. The same per-gram logic powers our full scrap-gold formula if you want to walk through it step by step.
Does the porcelain count? (PFM crowns)
No — porcelain has zero scrap value, so it must be subtracted from the weight first. A porcelain-fused-to-metal (PFM) crown has a thin gold-alloy substructure under a ceramic shell. Only the metal pays. If a PFM crown weighs 3 grams but is mostly porcelain, you might be pricing well under a gram of actual alloy, which is why PFM pieces look disappointingly light once a refiner strips them.
Solid cast crowns, inlays, onlays, and bridge frameworks are the high-value pieces. The little stainless-steel posts, screws, or amalgam (silver-mercury) fillings mixed into the box are worth nothing and should be sorted out.
Why can't I just read a karat stamp?
Because dental work isn't stamped the way jewelry is. There's no "583" or "750" mark like the stamps on a gold chain. Composition is set by the dental alloy the lab ordered, and it varies piece to piece. That's why dental gold is almost always sold to a refiner who melts and assays the lot to determine the true gold, platinum, and palladium percentages, then pays on the assay.
For a small handful of crowns, many buyers skip the assay and pay a conservative flat estimate — treating the gold as roughly 10K–14K to stay safe. That protects the buyer from overpaying on a low-gold alloy, but it also means a genuinely high-karat crown can be underpaid. If you have a meaningful quantity, an assay-based refiner usually nets more.
What will a buyer actually pay?
Expect a payout below melt. Refining a mixed, contaminated lot costs more than refining clean jewelry, so dental gold often pays 70%–85% of melt rather than the 90%+ a clean 14K chain might fetch. On the 2.5-gram 16K example above, an 80% payout on $214.35 of melt is about $171.48 — before any platinum-group credit, which a good refiner will add on top.
Estimate it in seconds
Weigh the metal (after removing porcelain and steel), pick a conservative karat, and let the calculator do the rest. Scrap Gold Pro prices every karat against live spot prices and lets you set your own payout percentage, so you can quote a crown — or a whole box — on the spot. It's free on web, iOS, and Android.