This is an early 19th C. toothkey. Simple extraction tools were needed for wondering toothdrawers, untrained, selfdeclared “dentists” of the time. The practice of dentistry was not regulated. The first dental school started in 1840 at Baltimore Dental College and the first US state to regulate practice detistry was in 1841 in Alabama. According to the Census of the time by 1850 there were 2,900 dentists in the US most of which were either physicians or untrained dentists. Dentistry tried to reign in on the unregulated practice. In 1864 Pasteur showed the bacterial nature of disease, in 1867 Lister introduced antiseptic surgery and gradually dentistry started to use cleaner and safer systems for treatment. As schools graduated educated dentists and licensing for practice were introduced, better instruments replaced the traumatizing and higly dangerous toothkey. John Tomes of Britain was the one who invented the tooth-specific extraction forceps in 1841. Description provided by Dr. Andrew I Spielman
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