Why Your Smile Is Your Most Important Physical Feature
Reasons Why Your Smile Is Important
Smiling is great, ask anyone. We put our best grin forward when we land a new job. We may smile from ear to ear just from seeing a dear friend in a crowd of strangers. The best part about this crucial physical feature is that it also works in reverse. If you’re feeling sad or disappointed and you still manage to beat gravity and pull the corners of your mouth upward, you’ll get a powerful mood boost.
Check out some more reasons why you should definitely burst out those pearly whites every chance you get.
People recognize smiles quicker than any other facial characteristic.
Think of a smile like a thumbprint for your face. We all have one, but none resemble the other. In fact, Mila Mileva from the University of York was so intrigued by the uniqueness of smiles that she did some research on it and published a paper.
Mila found that the participants in her study had an easier time matching two images of the same person when an open-mouth smile was displayed as opposed to a closed mouth expression or neutral facial features. That success only increased when participants had to tell two similar-looking people apart where both images had open-mouth smiles.
Given such eye-opening findings, the next time you’re taking a photo at the DMV, tell them about Mila and show off your most important facial feature.
Your smile is the only physical feature with psychological powers.
It’s a common fact that people smile when they’re happy, but it’s also true that merely deciding to smile can help you deal with negative emotional events. Even when you’re not feeling particularly cheerful, turning that frown upside down can give you a much-needed mood boost. What’s more? A fake smile seems to work just as well as a real one.
Seeing how important smiles are to our psychological well-being, having a smile you love can make showing off that ear-to-ear grin so much easier. Whether it’s closing gaps, erasing discolorations, or repairing cracks, Drs. Rob and Lyerly can help you put the shine back in your superpower.
People can tell if you’re happy, sad, or malicious from your smile.
Ever wondered how you can always tell a fake smile from a real one? When you smile out of genuine delight, you involuntarily contract a facial muscle known as the orbicularis oculi. It covers both cheekbones and attaches to the corners of the lips such that a contraction causes a stretch in the lips and pulls the cheeks upward. But this happens for every kind of smile. A happy smile is different because it’s the only one that also leads to wrinkles in the skin around the eyes. Most people can’t deliberately make this happen.
Nonetheless, having oral issues, such as tooth damage or sensitivity, can dramatically impact how your smile functions. Even in times of celebration, you may find yourself grimacing at the first bite of a chocolate-icing cupcake. If that’s the case, try visiting a dentist in Wasilla who can provide personalized and passionate care to help you reclaim your smile’s health as well as beauty.
Your smile is the window into your personality.
Smiles are critical to people’s perception of your character. A warm, genuine smile signals friendliness and conveys an open acceptance of others as well as a willingness to interact. In a workplace setting, a smile shows you’re reliable, confident in your abilities, and able to cope with any challenges that come your way. People who smile are often thought of as honest and trustworthy.
Handshakes may be the kings of first impressions, but your smiles are the windows into your personality. It’s what makes you more memorable to others and makes them more likely to seek you out when exciting opportunities come up. You’ll get this and so much more at the low price of spending two minutes brushing and seeking the professional help of your preferred Alaska dental care practitioner at least twice a year.
Smiling strengthens the immune system.
The mind-body connection is a fascinating thing. You can strengthen the immune system with a light thing: a smile. How, you may ask? Positive emotions trigger the release of dopamine, a hormone that increases the production of antibodies, which are natural killers of bacteria and diseases.
A drawback to having your body’s defense system tied to a smile is that sometimes you’re not in a position to smile. What do you do then? Dentists in Anchorage, Alaska, recommend you examine the reasons behind the reluctance.
Admittedly, you may just be having one of those days where everything that can go wrong does. But if you can manage a small smile (try a fake one; your body won’t know the difference), you’ll activate certain parts of your immune system that even modern medicine cannot reach.
Smiling is an important tool to have on hand — or more precisely, on your beautiful face. Its numerous advantages make getting a smile you love a beneficial investment. Particularly if the preventive care techniques of brushing twice a day don’t do the trick. The family dentists at Valley Dental Clinic know how important smiles are to your overall well-being and they’re ready to help you put your best foot — oops, smile — forward.