Letters to the Editor

I write in response to your technique tip ‘Cowhorn versus Eagle Beak’.¹ Having practised oral surgery for 30 years, 20 of which as a specialist, I thought I needed to share my views.

I first came across Cowhorn and Eagle Beaks on my elective in 1990 in Lagos, Nigeria. They were called ‘tooth splitting forceps’ and used to avoid surgical extractions because the patient would have had to pay more if it became a surgical procedure.

On my return to Belfast, I managed to track some down and started to use them in the MOS department, when the normal molar forceps caused decoronation of the tooth. When I was seen to be using them, I was berated by my clinical teachers, Messers McGimpsey and Cowan, that these particular forceps were: ‘The last refuge of the incompetent’, and encouraged to undertake surgical removal, because they felt that was less traumatic to the patient.