Gold teeth help needy children
A pile of gold teeth has been melted down and profits are being donated to children that need fillings but don’t have dental insurance.
Today it has been revealed that the bag of old teeth and gold crowns, that were left to Barbara Weichert by her father – San Jose dentist Milton J. Miller, raised $10,000 which will help fund an event where children who don’t have dental cover get their cavities filled.
Mrs Weichert said her father, who died in 1990, would be over the moon about being able to help so many children and expressed her relief that she would be getting rid of the gold which had been left in a wardrobe as it gave her the heebie jeebies.
Mr Miller, who practiced dentistry in San Jose from 1941 to 1979, and his solid gold chompers will aid the Sacramento Dental Society Foundation’s Smiles for Kids program, which has provided free dental services to children since 1991.
Dentists usually offer gold crowns to the person they have been removed from, as technically it is their property, but often people are not bothered about keeping their removed teeth – probably due to painful memories.
Therefore many dentists can acquire large amounts of scrapped dental gold. Mrs Weichert said her father who was a dog lover had once had two tiny gold Dachshunds made from scrapped gold he had collected.
Speaking to The Sacremento Bee, Mrs Weichert said: “The bag of stuff got moved to our closet and we just let it sit.
“But I got tired of looking at this bag with the teeth. It kind of makes you feel really funny because this stuff was all in somebody’s mouth at one time or another.”
Dentists work for free on the Smiles for Kids program and the money derived from the scrap helps cover materials and expenses.
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