Your smile means a lot more than you think…
“I will never understand all the good that a simple smile can conjure.” – Mother Teresa
Here at Hull & Appel Family Dentistry, when we see a patient’s healthy smile, we understand some of this good Mother Teresa talked about. Our patients are more confident and happier after they see themselves with a healthy, bright smile and we love playing a role in their joy. The benefits of smiling we’ve always thought to be true can actually be backed up by science.
Can a smile determine how your life will turn out? According to a UC Berkeley study, it can! Researchers followed the lives of their test subjects for 30 years after looking at their senior yearbook photos. Just by examining the subjects’ smiles, researchers were able to predict lengths of their marriages, standardized test scores of well-being, and how inspirational a subject would be on people around them. Subjects with happier smiles had longer marriages, higher scores of well-being, and were more influential and well liked. Smiles are evidently very important for your happiness, and also how people view you; when you smile, you appear more likable and courteous, and even more competent. Your smile is a more important part of your life than you may have realized.
The act of smiling can also make you feel better. Smiling reduces the amount of stress-inducing hormones in your system, and can even lower your blood pressure; meaning smiling is actually healthy for you! In another study, researchers studied baseball player cards from before the 1950s. All of the players who had big smiles in their card photo lived for an average of almost 80 years, about seven years longer than players who didn’t smile in their pictures. Part of the reason for this might be that smiling triggers a brain stimulation that acts as a reward – it is equal to the same stimulation of receiving 2,000 pounds of chocolate (without the calories!) or $25,000! So people who smile more clearly have reasons to be happier and want to live longer!
Having a happy and beautiful smile impacts your life in more ways than just looking good in a photo, and in our office, we are proud to help you take care of that precious smile. Your smile can change the way you view the world. So don’t forget to grin and see how it impacts your life!
