"Grunty Grogan" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 05 Aug 2008 22:28:14 GMT, (Doug White)
wrote:

The coke doesn't work. I am in the same boat, and it barely touched the
tooth (if at all) before it went moldy.

Still looking for a good approach...

Dilute HCl, .1 N dissolves Hydroxyapatite. In the absence of nitrate,
this will not dissolve the gold, though it may extract alloying metals
such as copper from the surface, leaving a frosty surface.
You can speed this up in a beaker floating in an ultrasonic cleaner.
This cavitates the organic materials as well as speeding up the
dissolution of the HA.

Coke will not work because it is a very dilute solution of phosphoric
acid, which gave rise to stories about it removing rust from bumpers.

HA can be prepared from H3PO4 and CaOH2 .

EDTA might work. Dissolves egg shells readily.
--
DT