Clove tongs

Even after World War II, it was normal for people to go to the village doctor for tooth extraction; a dentist did not exist in the village. Although from the 19th century patients could be numbed with nitrous oxide, the village doctor usually used the clove forceps. A visitor to Museum de Dorpsdokter said that even in the 1960s, when a root canal treatment lasted several days, he was given juice from cloves to take home for anaesthesia.