Gold wire was used in dentistry in ancient times, and for filling cavities in the 19th century. Gold is suitable for dentistry because it is malleable, nearly immune to corrosion, and closely mimics the hardness of natural teeth, thereby causing no harm to natural teeth during chewing. Gold was used before silver became available and has continued to be used for specialized purposes. Dental restorations are often made from a combination of precious metals. The use of gold in dentistry today makes up less than 5% of the world’s gold use.
As the dental industry adopted CAD/CAM processes for most of the crown and bridge fabrication, gold manufacturing still relied on the ancient “lost wax” technique, which requires a significant amount of time, skill, and labor. Recent developments have seen the advent of CAD/CAM milling of 100 mm diameter pucks of dental alloy to facilitate the direct milling of crowns and bridges from the solid puck. This effectively eliminated the risk and difficulty of the lost wax process and simultaneously improved upon the quality of the devices.
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