August 2012 Practice Newsletter

As team GB celebrate their most successful gold medal haul in living memory, have you ever wondered why we put such a high value on this precious metal?

Here are some interesting facts on gold-

1. Gold is so soft and malleable that an ounce of it could be stretched into a wire 50 miles in length
2. heavy metals such as gold are made as a result of a supernova explosion.
3. 
   about 70 percent of the world’s gold is used for making jewelry,  13 percent is used to make coins, put in nations’ central banks or purchased by investors. The rest goes to a variety of uses, such as industrial applications and dentistry.

We can make crowns, fillings and some types dentures out of gold although we usually combine it with other metals to improve its hardness .

The popularity of gold in dentistry has wained as more natural appearing materials have been developed but I think it is still popular with one or two people in Team GB…...