Gold for Kids, the charity which collects and melts down unwanted precious metals to help children in need, is delighted to be exhibiting at this year’s Dentistry Show London.

Since it began in 2018, over £50,000 has been raised by a number of dentists who have signed up to donate small amounts of scrap metal from their practices to benefit some of the most vulnerable children in the UK. The money has so far helped charities like the NSPCC, Barnados and Transforming Lives for Good, which provides lunches for children in the school holidays.

David Holmes, co-founder of the charity with his wife Leticia Casanova, said they are hoping many more dentists at the Dentistry Show will take one of their signature crown collection pots back to their practices so that their patients can start donating their unwanted or broken crowns, bridges, PFMs, PFGs or other precious or semi-precious material. He said:

“There are more than 4.5 million children living in poverty in the UK, which is unacceptable – and this is such a simple way to make a huge difference. We want to get the message out there and so are appealing to patients, professionals and the public to help us help them. 

“By supporting our charity, practices are also contributing to their Corporate Social Responsibility activities. All of the funds we raise go directly to children’s charities but we also want to increase the number of charities we help so that we can reach as many vulnerable young children as possible and give them the chance of a better life.”

All dentists need to do is to collect their patients’ waste dental restorations, like gold crowns and bridge work, then request a Royal Mail collection from their office to send restorations (and any old or broken gold jewellery) to the Gold for Kids secure storage facilities. These are then sent to a metal refinery to be processed and turned into bars which are sold to leading jewellery traders for cash. The money is then sent to carefully selected children’s charities which are dedicated to improving the wellbeing and prospects of children in need. As a registered charity, gift aid can also be claimed on donations from UK taxpayers, increasing the value of donations by 20%. 

Co-founder Leticia Casanova said:

“We are really looking forwarding to chatting to dentists, practice managers and dental nurses at Dentistry Show London. It’s going to be a fantastic opportunity to raise our profile within the industry. We will be bringing plenty of collection pots with us so that practices can take them back with them and start collecting unwanted precious metal straightaway. We also find they become a great talking point between dentists and patients.”

You will be able to find the Gold for Kids team on Stand B31.

Meanwhile, for more information about the charity, to register interest or to request a collection, please visit www.goldforkids.org.  You can also email the charity at info@goldforkids.org