Turnkey and Elevator

Turnkey and Elevator

Harvard University. Dental School. Museum

Brewster, George

Dentistry

Dental instruments and apparatus

The turnkey (for extracting teeth) and the elevator (for extracting roots) were essential early dental instruments. These were used by Dr. George Brewster of Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

In "The Claims of Dentistry," an address at the 1872 commencement of the Dental School, Oliver Wendell Holmes said, of the turnkey, "There never was a claw on bird or beast that was the cause of such anguish of apprehension, such howls of agony, as that diabolical instrument, looking like a vulture's talon, but known by the name of the key. It was a key indeed: it may have opened the door of heaven to the sufferer in due time; but, while the bolt was turning, the victim thought he was in that other place, where the man must be who invented the instrument of torture. Now a patient comes in; takes a few whiffs of anaesthestic; has a dozen or more teeth submitted to the embrace of the gentlemanly forceps, which lift them from their sockets as one takes out the pegs of a solitaire-board,--say, rather, as a father lifts his first-born infant,--comes to; stares about him; asks when they are going to begin; is told that it is all over; bursts into tears of hysteric gratitude; kisses the smiling dentist; wants to hug all mankind, and make the human race happy at once."

Turnkey and elevator used by Dr. George Brewster

Unknown

1830-1850, circa

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Harvard Dental School Museum Collection (HDSM 1049 and 1050)

image

1 turnkey and 1 elevator

physical object

HDSM 1049

HDSM 1050

DigID0002306

Gift of Dr. Edward B. Goodall to the Harvard Dental School Museum, 1893