It does not take a big investment to work with gold in either it direct or indirect form. No new upgrades to deal with or obsolescence of what you purchased a few years ago. The materials and technics have been refined wonderfully over the years by very skilled clinicians. You might change your technic (change your wax, casting investment), as you get further into its use, but we are talking a few hundred dollars vs thousands with some of the new technics. There are no software or licenses to be renewed each year. I was fortunate enough to walk out the door from dental school with a full armamentarium to begin practice using gold without large instrument and equipment outlays if I wanted to continue the use of gold in my practice situation. Yes, we had to pay for it in our issues, but we could do most procedures we were taught wherever we went to work.
How would I get started today if I hadn’t had that head start while in school?
Direct Gold or Indirect Gold, I would look for a clinical study club close to you, attend an annual meeting of the American Academy of Gold Foil Operators or the R. V. Tucker Cast Gold Study Clubs would help you do that. You would see some very nice clinical operations and meet dentists who could give you good advice on how to proceed.
I will get into more details of all of this as I develop this new site.
Gold Foil
Gold Casting