“Oh, John. . . Nobody does foil anymore.”

That was 1977, when my good friend and former roommate, John Sechena, was graduating from dental school. He had called me to see if I would be interested in joining him and his classmate, Dick Tucker (the younger), in joining a gold foil study club in Seattle. There were three spots available and Gerry Stibbs was the mentor. I had graduated four years before and was in the middle of trying to get my new private practice off the ground. Although I felt I had good exposure to direct gold in dental school, I hadn't done a foil since graduation.

At that time, I tried to discourage John from going down that road. You've heard the arguments: too difficult to manipulate the material, hard on the pulp, easier and better new materials available that are faster to insert; more predictable. Boy was I wrong! But then how do you know that you don't know if you don't know? When John shared with me that I would be required to take two weeks off from my new practice to attend a two-week gold foil course that summer, warning bells went off in my head all over again. How could I afford that? Two weeks of no income and I had to pay for the course, too.

In the beginning, most of the other members of our group were former dental school instructors of mine: Marty Anderson, Bob Allen, Ian Hamilton. Dick Tucker (the elder) would visit our meetings on occasion. The club was named after his mentor, George Ellsperman. Even Dr Ellsperman, up until his death, would visit our meetings at least once a year. I grew into dentistry under the wings of some of the greatest icons of dentistry of that time. Warren Johnson joined shortly after John, Dick and me. When Dr Stibbs passed away, Bruce Smith became our group's mentor and the beat went on.

Well, 30 years later, it turns out that no other decision in my professional career has had such an enormous impact on my practice of dentistry. Gold foil, it turns out, is the material that all other restorative materials are measured against. How often have we heard dentists describe a smooth margin as “foil like?” And, as a teaching material, it has no equal. A major benefit of my participation in study club work has been the improvement I have experienced in my technical ability. I was able to quickly master new materials and techniques with which my non-study club member colleagues would struggle. Even my surgery and prosthetics practice improved. And, the monthly meetings turned out to be opportunities to learn from the other members' aspects of dentistry unrelated to gold foil.

So, people are still doing foils. But what's the role of direct gold today? When dental students ask their instructors about foil, most get the same response I gave John. With so few dental schools offering foil, even as an elective, the vast majority of the instructors have never done a foil. How could they possibly give a knowledgeable answer?

It is this roadblock to handing down knowledge of direct gold that the American Academy of Gold Foil Operators (AAGFO) addresses at their annual meetings each year. During each meeting, direct gold instruments and materials are laid out for a “Masters Class” to teach dental students and reintroduce instructors and private practitioners to gold foil. The next meeting will be a joint meeting with the Academy of RV Tucker Study Clubs, in Phoenix, Arizona, November 12–16, 2008. This meeting is recognition of the symbiotic relationship between cast gold and gold foil. It is anticipated that many members of the Tucker Academy will take advantage of this class to help reincorporate foil into their practices. The meeting is open to all dentists; however, all who would like to improve their practices and patient treatment are encouraged to attend.