In honor of St. Patrick’s Day and the “wearin’ of the green,” we thought it would be fun and fitting to share some interesting facts about green…eyes!

#1

Green is the rarest eye color. If your sparklers are truly green, you are something of a unicorn… only about 2% of the world’s population sport this hue. 

#2

Green-eyed people can be found all around the globe. There is a Chinese village, Liqian, where a high percentage of the population sports green eyes and lighter hair.

#3

There isn’t any actual green pigment in a green eye. Melanin, a natural pigment that helps determine our skin, hair, and eye color, is found in all eyes. Brown eyes have quite a lot and blue eyes have relatively little. Green eyes are also low on melanin, but in addition they contain lipochrome, a yellowish, fat-soluble pigment. Lipochrome is also found in things like butter, eggs, and corn. So a little melanin, some lipochrome, and a cool light dispersing scattering called the Tyndall Effect combine to produce...

A common question asked during the eye exam is, “When is the puff coming?”  

Patients are referring to air-puff or non-contact tonometry. Tonometry is the procedure used to measure eye pressure, and this is important for diagnosing and monitoring glaucoma.

In non-contact tonometry, a puff of air is used to measure the pressure inside the eye.  The benefit of this test is there is no actual contact with the eye, but the air puff is sometimes very startling for patients. Some people hate that test and it isn’t the most accurate way to measure your eye pressure.

Some doctors don’t even use the air-puff test. Instead, they place a yellow drop that consists of a numbing medicine and then shine a blue light on the eye. This is done in front of the slit lamp and a small tip gently touches the eye to measure the eye pressure. This procedure is called Goldmann tonometry and is considered the gold standard for measuring eye pressure.  

Another method for checking eye pressure is the Tonopen....