How much is your smile worth?

Smiles are the number one preferred facial expression!

Investing in Yourself

"Smile ! Say Cheese!"  Photographers want us to flash our best smile for the camera.

Smiling faces is the number one American preference of facial expressions.  

Or, said another way ... people would rather see a smiling face than any other facial expression. 

What makes smiling so important? On the surface a smile is simply muscles flexing to turn up the corners of our mouths.  What gives a smile its worth is the value that we as humans place on it.  Smiling denotes pleasure, happiness, love or amusement. It is the one international expression of emotion understood by everyone, regardless of race, ethnicity, culture or religion.  Newborns often exhibit smiles within the first three days of life.  Many researchers believe this allows caretakers to bond with the infant which helps to ensure the infant's survival.  In short, smiling is an innate way that humans use to bond with one another.

  
Have you ever heard the phrase "service with a smile?" This has been at the core of American businesses for well over a century.  Have you ever had a job in customer service where “smile” was not in the job requirements? This includes telephone customer service representatives.  We can hear smiles over the phone!

Research on smiling overwhelming supports the idea that humans find people who smile more attractive and likable. In fact, there is a term within the social science community called the halo effect.  The halo effect simply implies that the more attractive we find another person the more likely we are to give them positive attributes such as trustworthiness, friendliness, kindness and many more.  When an employee smiles at a distressed customer it conveys a message of patience, warmth, respect, empathy and hospitality.

Researchers also believe that we receive more helping behaviors when we smile. People who smile and smile often are considered a greater asset to their employers, and are more employable.  Research shows that waitresses and waiters who smile a lot receive more than double the tips received by their non-smiling counterpart.

Smiling is very important between the sexes.  In studies, males overwhelmingly find smiling women more physically attractive and rate those women as having more sex appeal.  They also tend to rate smiling women as more kind, trust worthy and friendlier.  It is said that the first feature that people notice upon first meeting someone is their smile 82 percent of the time. In fact, studies done on online dating have found that when people are shown pictures of people smiling with confidence, research subjects recall that persons smile and even personality traits over any other features. Yes, I said personality traits through a picture of a smiling face!

How can dentistry help with smiling you might ask? Well, healthy, beautiful teeth and gums allow us to smile with CONFIDENCE and SMILE MORE! All of that smiling helps us to land better jobs, attract a bigger selection of potential boyfriends or girlfriends, get promotions, get into prestigious programs, and most importantly makes us FEEL GOOD ABOUT OURSELVES! All of this and I haven't even touched on the health benefits that allow you to miss less work and have more energy (stay tuned for that blog)! This domino effect is why a beautiful smile is worth every penny! Smiles are PRICELESS! Smiles are an INVESTMENT IN YOUR FUTURE! Beautiful smiles just FEEL GOOD!