Gold foil

Gold foil is manufactured by beating pure gold into thin sheets. The gold foil is cut into 4 × 4 inch (10 × 10 cm) sheets and sold in books of sheets, separated by pages of thin paper. The books contain 1/10 oz or 1/20 oz of gold. The sheet of foil that weighs 4 g is termed No. 4 foil; the sheet weighing 3g is termed No. 3 foil; and the sheet weighing 2 g is termed No. 2 foil. Because the 4 × 4 inch sheets are too large to be used in restorative procedures, they are rolled into cylinders or pellets before insertion into tooth preparations.

Pellets of gold foil are generally rolled from 1/32-inch, 1/43-inch, 1/64-inch, or 1/128-inch sections cut from a No. 4 sheet of foil. The book of foil is marked and cut into squares or rectangles. Each piece is placed on clean fingertips, and the corners are tucked into the center, and then the foil is lightly rolled into pellet form. In addition, cylinders of gold foil may be rolled from the segments of a sheet. After pellets of gold are rolled, they may be conveniently stored in a gold foil box, which is divided into labeled sections for various sizes of pellets. Cylinders of foil and selected sizes of other types of gold also may be stored in the box. Preferential contamination is suggested by placing a damp cotton pellet dipped into 18% ammonia into each section of the box. This serves to prevent deleterious oxides from forming on the gold until it is used.

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