It would seem that viewing cute pictures of puppies, kittens and other cute animals is a great anti-stress. Flipping through such pictures, you can sit for hours at the phone screen and distract yourself from all your problems.But dentists warn it can be dangerous to our health, and it's not just about our eyesight, the Daily Mail reports.
According to London dentist Dr. Rizwan Mahmood, flipping through cute pictures of animals people sometimes catch themselves thinking, "that's so cute, I could eat that," and in fact there is scientific evidence to support it.
Scientists call this phenomenon "cute aggression"-essentially a type of "dimorphic expression"-when our outward actions or expressions don't match what we feel inside.
For example, when we feel like crying in moments of pure happiness.
According to Mahmood, the danger is that long hours of looking at pictures of cute animals can lead to "crunching or biting of the jaw," which, in turn, is dangerous to the integrity of our teeth.
The dentist notes that such a habit can lead to cracked, chipped and even broken teeth.
The dentist notes that instant physical reactions are to blame - when people see something cute, like a fluffy kitten, puppy or rabbit, they react physically, not verbally.
That said, it's important to realize that causing damage to teeth is actually easier than we might think - you don't have to push hard to do it.
However, not all dentists agree that cute aggression should be a cause for concern.
According to Dr. Alan Clark of Belfast, cute aggression has to last at least several hours to cause real damage to teeth.
Note that in earlier studies, scientists actually concluded that cute aggression can cause teeth to grind and clench hard, but scientists never understood how that might affect our teeth.
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