Metallographic Observation to Determine a Low-content Gold Alloy Castability

Low gold-content dental alloys nowadays represent viable alternatives to high nobility alloys. The casting techniques and equipment used for low-gold content alloys are similar to those used for conventional gold alloys. This, coupled with their acceptable properties, good clinical performance and lower cost, has lead to their widespread use. The alloy performance in the dental laboratory is an important factor affecting alloy selection. One of the main properties of alloys is their capacity to very accurately reproduce the wax pattern, therefore resulting in a fine structure, with minimum internal porosity and no surface defects. These performances represent what we call castability. The aim of our study is to determine castability for a low gold-content dental alloy.