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a wink & a smile

eye and dental care

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Are You Blinking Enough?

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We don’t often pay attention to our blinking habits throughout the day. But whether we realize it or not, blinking is vitally important to our eye health.

The average adult blinks between 10 and 20 times per minute. Even though a blink only takes one tenth of a second, all those blinks add up to about 10 percent of our waking life! So, what’s so important about blinking that we need to miss out on 10 percent of everything that’s happening right in front of us?

Blinking Nourishes And Lubricates Our Eyes

Blinking is necessary to clean and moisturize our eyes. Each time we blink, a thin layer of tears is spread across the eye surface, keeping them from drying out as well as brushing away any small particles of dust or dirt that could otherwise irritate our eyes or impair our vision.

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When We Focus, We Blink A Lot Less

Did you know that the number of times we blink decreases drastically when we are focused on something? On average we only blink three to eight times per minute when reading, watching TV, listening to a podcast, working on a computer, or another activity that requires intense focus. That’s roughly 60 percent less than our normal rate of blinking! This lack of blinking over time can lead to eyestrain and dry eyes.

Blinking Exercises Can Relieve Strain And Help Dry Eyes

For the most part, we may not realize when we’re blinking. However, making a conscious effort to blink more often during high focus activities can do our eyes a world of good.

Make it a habit to close your eyes when you are thinking or doing something that doesn’t require your vision. Set reminders for yourself to do a blinking exerciseevery hour during periods of focus. One good exercise that will leave your eyes feeling fresher is to simply close your eyes and pause, squeeze them for a moment, open them and relax.

A Lot Happens In The Blink Of An Eye

The mechanism of our eyes is incredible! Different types of tears along with multiple oil-producing sebaceous glands work together all day to nourish and protect our eyes.Truly, a lot happens in the blink of an eye!

Ask yourself, are you blinking enough throughout the day? Even though blinking seems minor to us, it essential to keeping our eyes healthy.

We are grateful to our loyal patients!

 

Image by Flickr user gautsch. used under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Image cropped and modified from original.

 

The content on this blog is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of qualified health providers with questions you may have regarding medical conditions.

10 Fun Dental Facts You Probably Didn’t Know!

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THE TRUTH IS, our teeth are amazing! Without them we wouldn’t be able to speak, eat, sing, or smile properly. We’d like to celebrate our teeth by sharing some interesting dental facts you may not have known!

Here Are 10 Fun Dental Facts

  1. If you’ve been using floss daily, by the end of the year the total length will be the perimeter of a baseball diamond! Is your floss going to make it to home plate?
  2. Because birds lack teeth, many swallow stones or grits to aid in breaking up hard foods.
  3. On average, women smile 62 times a day and men only eight times a day. Step it up, guys!
  4. The average American spends 38.5 total days brushing their teeth in their lifetime.
  5. Only 40 percent of young people age six to 19 have had cavities in their life. That’s down from 50 percent a decade ago!
  6. In the middle ages, people thought that a dog’s tooth boiled in wine made an excellent mouth rinse to prevent tooth decay. Tasty!
  7. The Egyptian plover, also known as the crocodile bird, is famous for flying into crocodile mouths and cleaning their teeth.
  8. Prior to the 1850s, ‘toothpastes’ were usually powders and contained soap and chalk.
  9. An obscure law in Vermont states that it is illegal for women to wear false teeth without the written permission of their husband. Crazy!
  10. Different animals have different amounts of teeth; armadillos have 104, pigs have 44, and humans have 32.

Another cool fact: the narwhal’s tusk Is actually a tooth!


How Many Of These Facts Have You Heard Before?
It’s always fun to learn about the obscure facts and crazy history that make up our tooth trivia! Do you know any other cool dental facts?
Comment below or on our Facebook page! And remember, take care of your teeth. They do so much for you!

The content on this blog is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of qualified health providers with questions you may have regarding medical conditions.

Image by Flickr user la vaca vegetariana used under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Image cropped and modified from original.

The content on this blog is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of qualified health providers with questions you may have regarding medical conditions.