The amount of money spent each year on health and beauty products is a testimony to the highly social nature of people.
Although there are widely different views on what makes a person attractive, there is universal agreement that a beautiful smile is a desired feature for everyone. Accomplishing this goal of a beautiful smile has become an essential and popular part of dentistry today. Psychologists and medical healthcare providers have uncovered benefits to a beautiful smile beyond satisfying a patient’s vanity.
Here are six reasons your smile is important.
1. Your Smile Affects Your Self-Confidence
The explosion of social media in today’s culture has revealed the premium people place on how others perceive them. Research in the field of psychology has shown that a person’s teeth and smile critically impact their overall attractiveness and personality. Attractive and smiling people are generally perceived as more successful, friendly, and intelligent. This creates the benefit of enhanced self-confidence for cosmetic dental patients.
2. Your Smile Can Help Keep You Healthy
The value of a beautiful smile has intrigued psychologists for decades. Until recently, little was known about the connections between smiling and physical health. Although this field of science is relatively new, research indicates that your smile can have many health-related benefits, such as:
- Improved physiological response to stress.
- Faster recovery from stress.
- Fewer illnesses over time.
- Lower heart rate.
- Reduced blood pressure.
- Reduced pain naturally.
3. Your Smile Sets You Apart
People have many ways to change their appearance. Changes in someone’s hairstyle or color, growing a beard, losing weight, and complete changes in wardrobe can render a person unrecognizable. But you can always recognize a person’s unique smile, setting them apart from everyone else.
4. Your Smile Makes A Great First Impression
More than one person has landed a job or made a friend by making a great first impression. Although we are advised not to judge a book by its cover, we often make judgments of people when we first meet them. Studies show that more than half of the first impression you make on others comes from factors that include your smile.
According to a study by the American Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry, your first impression comes down to the power of an attractive smile. The study shows that almost half of adults consider a person’s smile their most memorable feature after they meet for the first time. In addition, according to the study, your smile is twice as important as the words you speak when meeting someone.
5. Your Smile Can Help Build Trust
A genuine smile is one of the quickest and easiest ways to build trust with someone. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology joined the Toulouse School of Economics to study whether you can build trust with your smile and profit from this trust. Their results indicate that a genuine smile is a strong predictor of someone’s trustworthiness, and they found it to be a financially beneficial quality.
6. Your Smile Can Help You Live a Longer and Happier Life
A genuine smile not only affects the quality of your life, but it can also be a factor in lengthening your life. Medical researchers have found that a genuine smile is associated with living a longer and happier life. People who smile more have better general health and fewer hospitalizations. They found that even when people have a serious illness, such as renal disease, their life is vastly improved and lengthened by smiling.
The Features of an Attractive Smile
Dentists have not only perfected materials and techniques to improve smiles, but they have also learned how each small detail of teeth, gums, and lips contributes to that beautiful smile. The good news is that if you are not satisfied with any one of the features of an attractive smile listed below, cosmetic dentistry can improve it.
Color of your teeth. White teeth and pink gums make you appear younger and healthier.
Size of your teeth. Teeth that are smaller due to wear can detract from your smile and make you appear older.
Position of your teeth. Straight teeth can improve your smile and make it easier to keep your teeth and gums cleaner and healthier.
Gaps or spaces between your teeth. Gaps between teeth create dark spaces that draw attention and make your smile less bright.
Amount of gum exposed above your teeth. In the past, many people had no choice in changing how much of their gums showed when they smiled. However, today periodontal surgeries can make dramatic improvements to reveal more tooth structure and less gums.
Cosmetic Dentistry Procedures That Can Improve Your Smile
Digital radiography, computerized tomography (CT), new ceramic and metal alloys, and the safe, effective administration of sedation have helped revolutionize your dentist’s ability to change your smile. Some of the popular cosmetic dental procedures today include:
- Porcelain veneers.
- Porcelain crowns.
- Dental implants.
- Invisalign.
- Full mouth rehabilitation.
Steps You Can Take To Improve Your Smile
Media coverage of smile makeovers has let everyone know that they no longer have to settle with broken, discolored, and missing teeth. These and other conditions can be treated with high-tech cosmetic dental procedures to improve the oral health and overall well-being of anyone. However, initiating and maintaining these changes after a smile makeover is ultimately up to the individual. Steps you can take to get and keep a beautiful smile include the following:
- Make an appointment for a cosmetic dental consultation with your dentist. Just like every smile is different, so is every cosmetic dental case. A consultation is necessary to learn what procedures you need to get the smile you have always wanted.
- Brush and floss daily. Dental plaque can damage perfectly restored teeth just like it can your natural teeth. Brushing twice daily and flossing at least once each day will be just as important as ever after you have your smile makeover.
- Have regular dental exams and professional teeth cleanings. No matter how meticulous you are with home care, you have areas of your mouth with which you need help to remove plaque. This can help protect your investment in cosmetic dental procedures to enhance your smile.
- Eat a healthy diet. Avoiding sugary and acidic foods and drinks helps protect your teeth from decay and enamel erosion. Additionally, a nutritious diet helps maintain healthy gums, which are critical to a beautiful smile.
Schedule an Appointment
The oral health professionals at Palmetto Dental Arts treat stained, chipped, missing, and malaligned teeth with a full menu of cosmetic dental procedures. Contact us online or call us to learn more about how we can help you improve your life with an enhanced smile.
