Bull market in gold means big bucks for old dental work

Gold is still used to make some crowns, but fillings today are more commonly made of other substances, such as less expensive mercury amalgam or more cosmetically attractive polymer compounds.

"There's a lot of people my age who have excess gold teeth and they don't know what to do with them," said Davis, who stashed her dental gold in a bank safe deposit box and recently began looking online for ways to sell it.

"They must be valuable or otherwise the dentist wouldn't give them to you in a bag."

Recycling dental work isn't just a U.S. phenomenon. The Japan Denture Recycle Association, which started in December 2006, has recycled 30,000 dentures and raised about $176,500 for charity.

Dentures use parts made of gold, silver, palladium and other precious metals, and the project's leader estimates all the dentures discarded in Japan each year could raise nearly $70 million.

But don't expect to get rich hawking gold fillings and crowns.

Dr. Parviz Azar-Mehr, a dental specialist who runs a private practice in Westwood, Calif., said he often gives patients the dental gold he removes but says it's rarely enough to sell.

"Usually the amount of gold is so little that it's not significant," Azar-Mehr said.

And replacing a gold crown isn't cheap. Newer porcelain and gold crowns can cost $500 to $3,000 apiece, and not all insurance companies will pay for the procedure.

Besides the financial benefit, Taber says people don't mind selling dental gold because it's far less emotional than parting with heirlooms like grandma's wedding ring or the family silverware.