Crow's bill dental forceps, steel, crude, for lower roots, owned by a Sarajevo barber surgeon, Yugoslavia

Dental forceps used for tooth pulling have been around for centuries. These crow’s bill forceps (on the left) are crudely made and are so called because of their shape. They would have been used to remove the roots of the teeth and were owned by a barber-surgeon located in Sarajevo in Bosnia and Herzegovina, formerly part of Yugoslavia. Tooth pulling was carried out by a range of people including barber-surgeons and travelling practitioners and was the only remedy for diseased teeth. Dentistry did not become a regulated and licensed profession until the late 1800s. They are shown here with another pair of dental forceps (A621720).