In this guest blog, Mark Topley, Chair of Trustees at Gold for Kids highlights an easy way dental practices can help raise funds for the charity.
Every day, something quietly valuable leaves your practice.
A crown comes off. A bridge is replaced. An old restoration is removed. It goes in a pot or a clinical waste bag, and nobody thinks twice. There is no reason to. The clinical job is done and the day moves on.
But those small, discarded pieces contain precious metals. Gold, silver, palladium. Real value. And for most practices, that value simply disappears.
Gold for Kids exists to change that.
The idea is straightforward
Gold for Kids collects discarded restorations from dental practices, melts them down, and donates the proceeds to trusted UK charities supporting children in poverty, crisis, and hardship.
Since it began, the charity has donated over £48,000 — funding refuge beds for children fleeing abuse, hot meals through food banks and school holiday schemes, school uniforms and essentials, and trauma counselling for children in distress. Every penny raised goes directly to children across the UK. There is no complicated infrastructure. No significant overhead. Just a simple, focused model that works.
Twice a year, Gold for Kids runs a melt. The next one is at the end of July.
What getting involved looks like
Practices register at goldforkids.org/register and receive everything they need — a collection pot, clear instructions, and a nurture campaign in the lead-up to the melt deadline that guides the team through collecting, talking to patients, and sending everything in on time.
There is no fundraising ask directed at patients. No sponsored events. No additional cost to speak of.
You collect what you were already discarding. You send it in. Gold for Kids does the rest.
What it does for your team and your patients
This is where it gets interesting for practice owners.
Giving back is something most practices want to do. The barrier is usually complexity — finding something that fits the practice, the team, and the patient relationship without creating additional work.
Gold for Kids removes that barrier almost entirely.
When patients ask what happens to an old crown being removed, a team member can explain that it will help fund support for a child in need. That is a small moment, but it is the kind of moment that builds trust and strengthens the relationship between a practice and its community.
For teams, shared purpose matters. Practices that stand for something beyond the appointment book tend to have more engaged, more cohesive teams. This gives your team a story to tell — and a reason to feel proud of where they work.
The July melt is approaching
Registration is open now. The deadline is the end of July, which means the time to get set up, brief the team, and start collecting is this month — not next.
Go to goldforkids.org/register. It takes minutes. Everything you need arrives with your collection kit.
What is currently leaving your practice as clinical waste could, with almost no additional effort, help a vulnerable child in the UK have a safer, better-supported life.
That is a good use of something you were going to throw away.
