 With pelicans, their sharp talons were used to be placed down on the inside of the mouth near the gums while the elevator helped pull the tooth out of its socket.Then, a pair of pincers would do the rest of the job, wiggling the tooth out of the gum until the extraction was complete.The functionality of today's Dental Forceps come from the need to remove items from the mouth such as the cotton balls Dentists place next to a patient's teeth or the rubber bands a patient needs for their braces.