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When you get right down to facts, it's wasteful to bury people with clothes on. They could be put in that expensive casket buck naked and it wouldn't matter to them. The clothes might not bring in a lot of money, but some poor person might get some good out of them.
Another thought. If the hair is long enough, you could cut it and sell it too. If the person had lost all his/her hair due to chemotherapy, bury them bald and sell the wigs.
You see.....the problem with pulling the teeth for the gold is that it depends on how badly you need the money and how much you care for the person. It won't matter to anyone but you.
Don't forget to remove the wedding rings either. You could probably get more for them than you could from the teeth
I don't know, something about this topic of gold fillings makes me think of the nazis in the concentration camps during ww2, taking the gold fillings from all those poor souls before gassing them. Creepy.
It really isn't the same thing at all. The Nazis took all valuables from live people, then murdered them. This topic is about fully deceased people and whether valuables should be kept by their relatives or let the morticians do what they want with them. Good point about the wedding rings. I've heard that morticians routinely take those too if the family doesn't take them.
It really isn't the same thing at all. The Nazis took all valuables from live people, then murdered them. This topic is about fully deceased people and whether valuables should be kept by their relatives or let the morticians do what they want with them. Good point about the wedding rings. I've heard that morticians routinely take those too if the family doesn't take them.
I wonder if the mortician took the can of beer and box of snuff my neighbor had put in his coffin ( by his son) right before the coffin was closed.
I suppose I could go either way on this overall issue. I do think its supremely wasteful to bury diamond rings, expensive watches etc. with the dead. Surely there more meaningful sentimental items that can be buried with them, pictures, favorite flowers etc. My father's childhood and true self was a farmer though he had to work in a factory as an adult. I had a sheaf of wheat pinned inside his casket. Sell the expensive items and donate to...whatever... X type cancer research, favorite charities of the deceased, hand some money to a struggling family... whatever.
On the other hand I can (sort of) undstand the sentimentality of burying engagement rings et. enough that I wouldn't judge either.
Considering the indiginities of modern mortuary I can hardly exclude taking out any gold if it were valuable enough to warrant. "Let them rest in peace" - if you believed that you wouldn't submit them to a mortician at all IMHO.
When you get right down to facts, it's wasteful to bury people with clothes on. They could be put in that expensive casket buck naked and it wouldn't matter to them. The clothes might not bring in a lot of money, but some poor person might get some good out of them.
edit to add: I get and appreciate the sarcasm in your post.
Last year, I buried Mom in a moderately expensive dress, with her pearl studs and necklace, and her wedding and engagement ring. Her long-time hairdresser did her hair, make-up, and nails.
She had picked out and paid for her casket, too
All together, I could have made 1k-3k dollars if I had disregarded her wishes.
None of these were my idea or taste, yet it's what Mom requested. (Yes, we had had a "death panel" discussion in which Mom specified these, as well as medical matters.) i was happy to know and follow her wishes.
When the mortician asked about removing her pacemaker, I said no, and later I just let the medical provider be damned when they requested I return it to them in the mail envelope they provided. geez.
The funeral home did not steal anything, I was there when they closed the coffin, moved it to the hearse, and then to the burial plot.
I've made my own arrangements to be cremated, in the basic (ie cheapest) container when I die. No jewelry. But if I have gold fillings or a pacemaker by that time, I swear I'll haunt anyone and everyone who extracts them!
edit to add: I get and appreciate the sarcasm in your post.
Last year, I buried Mom in a moderately expensive dress, with her pearl studs and necklace, and her wedding and engagement ring. Her long-time hairdresser did her hair, make-up, and nails.
She had picked out and paid for her casket, too
All together, I could have made 1k-3k dollars if I had disregarded her wishes.
None of these were my idea or taste, yet it's what Mom requested. (Yes, we had had a "death panel" discussion in which Mom specified these, as well as medical matters.) i was happy to know and follow her wishes.
When the mortician asked about removing her pacemaker, I said no, and later I just let the medical provider be damned when they requested I return it to them in the mail envelope they provided. geez.
The funeral home did not steal anything, I was there when they closed the coffin, moved it to the hearse, and then to the burial plot.
I've made my own arrangements to be cremated, in the basic (ie cheapest) container when I die. No jewelry. But if I have gold fillings or a pacemaker by that time, I swear I'll haunt anyone and everyone who extracts them!
As always, ymmv.
And this is the salient point - let your wishes be known to your heirs. If it made you feel better, then it was the right thing to do. End of discussion.
Both my parents were cremated, at their request, and their ashes scattered, so whether they were buried with their teeth or not is irrelevant. They both thought that funerals were a waste of money and visiting cemeteries a waste of time.
Yes, they are a terrible waste of money at a time when loved ones don't need the worry or the grief of a money sucking mortician feeding on the estate those left behind need.
We plan to be cremated with our knee implants donated to a medical school and my gold teeth sold to recover the money in them.
Make no mistake any valuables left on/in the body after viewing the body will be removed and sold by the mortician since once the casket is closed no one will be the wiser.
Eight days and 27 posts later, no one even has mentioned what money each gold tooth would be worth. ( yet many posters talk about extracting and selling them)
Eight days and 27 posts later, no one even has mentioned what money each gold tooth would be worth. ( yet many posters talk about extracting and selling them)
The price of gold goes up and down like a roller coaster. Let's say it's at $800 per ounce. (has been higher, has been lower) The amount of gold in a tooth depends on the size of the filling, etc. It would only be a small fraction of an ounce. There is difference in the type of alloy used and you would have to figure in the cost of melting down and extracting the gold from the other metal.
So, the best guess would be....What?
It may have been a very expensive filling, but the cost included the skill of the dentist and a lot of other things.
It depends on how old the inlay is. And it would be an inlay, not a filling. 50 years or so ago, 18k gold was used for inlays. Now, it's a synthetic or an alloy. An inlay is just cemented in. Many come out on their own as the tooth decays around them.
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