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Dental equipment used by Joseph Harris who had a dental practise at Raglan Street on Wellingborough Road.

Part of a set that includes a wrench for removing teeth, curved pincers, scissors, levering devices, fleams, files and probes.

The history of dentistry is almost as ancient as the history of humanity and civilization with the earliest evidence dating from 7000 BCE. Major advances were made in the 19th century and dentistry evolved from a trade to a profession. The profession came under government regulation by the end of the 19th century. In the UK the Dentist Act was passed in 1878 and the British Dental Association formed in 1879. In the same year, Francis Brodie Imlach was the first ever dentist to be elected President of the Royal College of Surgeons in Edinburgh, raising dentistry on a par with clinical surgery for the first time.