In rural areas, extracting teeth remained the work of the family doctor for a very long time. He did so for a fee of one guilder per tooth. In Hilvarenbeek, the first dentist settled only after 1960. Although from the 19th century patients could be properly anaesthetised with nitrous oxide, the village doctor usually used the clove forceps. A visitor to our museum told us that even long after World War II, he was given clove juice to take home for anaesthesia during root canal treatment

In the 1st century AD, Aulus Cornelius Celsus advised distracting patients before treatment. A tactic with eternal value. In the 20th century, Dr Wiegersma from Deurne had to extract a molar from a patient. He handed the man an antique bowl and explained that the thing was extremely expensive. As he started to pull, the patient dropped the bowl. The terror of breaking it exceeded the pain of the unanaesthetised act.