I have to go to my dentist after the holidays and have a tooth pulled. Just so happens that it has a gold crown on it. Is it politically correct to ask the dentist for the gold in that tooth? I fully intend to ask him for it, but I am having trouble with how I will ask. Maybe, “Err… emm say would you whipe the blood off that tooth and give it to me doc?”
Or “Hey doc! When your finished may I have that tooth please… I am gonna make a ring out of it.”
If memory serves me correctly I initially paid about 300 bucks for that tooth. Soooo
Do I ask him for the whole tooth and nothing but the tooth…( sorry couldn’t resist) or just the gold?
Of course that’s just my opinion I could be wrong.
Dennis Miller
i’d have to recommend just asking for the gold. simple reason being that if anyone is going to know how to detach it from the tooth, it’s going to be your dentist.
and if you’re going to ask for it, you might want to jump on it. i remember when my dad got two teeth pulled with gold crowns, before thinking twice the dentist threw them out.
“human beings, vegetables, or cosmic dust; we all dance to a mysterious tune, intoned in the distance by an invisible piper.” - albert einstein
I doubt the $300 cost of a gold crown represents the cost of the gold itself. Right now, gold goes for $300 per troy ounce. Do you know how much a troy ounce is? You could replace every molar in your mouth with a gold one (not merely gold fillings, whole gold molars), and you’d use up only about an ounce of gold in the process.
The truth, as always, is more complicated than that.
Just chiming in to say I like the “I want to make a ring out of it” idea. Set it in a huge engagement type band, tooth and all. Good conversation piece, just don’t wear it on any first dates.
Heck I had a normal tooth pulled and I asked for it back. They gave it to me in a special envelope… I am under the impression that it’s pretty common to keep your teeth after they’re pulled. Just ask when you sit down “hey, I’d like to keep that when you pull it”
I dunno, tracer. I’ve been contemplating a one (troy) ounce bullion coin, and I rather think that it would take rather more than that to replace all of my molars (YMMV, depending on how large your molars are, whether or not you have wisdom teeth, and how pure the alloy is).
I don’t even play a dentist on TV, but ISTR that extracted teeth are now considered a biohazard. Aha would be wise to ask firmly for the tooth beforehand, or, gold or no gold, it is likely to end up in one of those non-reactive plastic vaults with the spiky trefoil on it, along with the needle used to inject novacaine (and I assure you that your dentist will not put his hand in that, no matter how prettily you whine).
“Kings die, and leave their crowns to their sons. Shmuel HaKatan took all the treasures in the world, and went away.”
I kept my wisdom teeth after they were extracted. I forgot to ask ahead of time, though, so my grogginess caused much confusion with the staff. They were able to get them out of the trash, though, and I took them home. I suspect a jeweller could remove the gold as well, but you may want to check first, in case he/she is squeemish.
It may be that when an ornithologist says the Water Ouzel walks under the water, he only means that he has seen a Water Ouzel or some other bird sitting on a stone in the general vicinity of a body of water.
–Will Cuppy
Regardless of the filling or not, the dentist will give you your teeth if you ask for them. My dentist gave me my wisdom teeth after he extracted them. I was goin gto make them into cufflinks, but never got around to it.
I had a wisdom tooth pulled because it had a hole in it. I haven’t seen a tooth out since I was little, and have never seen a wisdom tooth up close, so I asked the DDS for it and he said “Well . . . no.”
I said “Give it!”
He made a big deal about how it was medical waste and contaminated and stuff and I said, “Hey man, it was in my mouth five minutes ago and for 10 years before that.”
Actually it probably sounded like “Haymuniwuzenmouffyminzgooantinyerzfurdat,” because of the painkiller, but he got it. He gave it to me and it was nasty, with stuff all hanging off of it and blood and stuff.
Anyway, there must not be a law against it, but be ready to fight for your tooth.
Markxxx, no she doesn’t have HIV, it was just what the doc said & what the guy above doc’s said, ‘no, you can’t have it. Why? Cause it might have a disease or something…’
My great grandfather was the first dentist in El Paso, Texas. He saved all the teeth with gold he pulled, and made jewelery from the gold. Presumably he also used some of the gold he bought for use in teeth, but he claimed to get it from used teeth, too.
Jill