why would a dentist use gold for a filling??
I have heard of it, and seen the Holocaust movies with the pile of gold teeth...but why?
Not used much for fillings, but used quite a bit for crowns.....where the old tooth is ground down to about nothing but a little nub, and a nearly full replacement tooth glued over it. Gold is one of the best materials to use, since it lasts forever ( no corrosion ), is relatively soft and doesn't shatter like porcelin over metal crowns do IF subjected to enough pressure.
My dentist tells me most dental gold is 16k. I have several Mercedes payments worth of them in my mouth, since I was a "tetracycline" baby....one of those kids in the 50's that that particular antibiotic was used on at a very young age, and as they later found out, (side effects) when my adult teeth came in, they are very soft/yellowish, and I've always had a mouth full of tooth problems. Got a dozen gold, porcelin, and even one plastic crown......so I can give ya the full report on various materials.
The only time ANYONE gets paid spot or near it, is with pure gold, generally in coin or bar form. ( Actually, most coins will carry a premium, both on buy and sell, and you can actually get 20-30 bucks ABOVE spot, depending on the coin.....see AMPEX "buy" price on their website )
For any gold alloy, about the best ANYBODY gets is about 90% of spot from a refiner, such as Midwest refinery. Individuals would do well to sell to someone like that ( same type place these "we buy gold" places sell ), as they will pay the very most for you alloys.
As others have stated above, I rather seriously doubt you will get enough out of dental gold to justify pulling them for that sake ALONE, but if you're having them pulled anyway, you definitely DO want to hang onto the old crowns.