Investing in a Smile that Returns the Favor

Some of the best things in life, you can’t put a dollar sign on. But that doesn’t mean they don’t have value.

A smile is one of those things—you can’t put a price on a great smile, but when you’ve got one, the rewards are extraordinary. Scientific study after study reveals the various social and psychological benefits of genuine smiling, both on you, and the people who surround you. One study followed some college-aged women for 30 years who smiled in their college yearbook photos. Those who had smiled the most in those yearbook photos had happier lives and marriages, as well as fewer personal setbacks in the following years. 

On the Huffington Post, marketing strategist Ted Rubin explored some of the ways that a smile can enhance your “personal brand”—and your life. He writes:

I sent something out on Instagram recently -- a photo collage of the smiling faces of friends -- with the following comment: "Smile at your customers, Smile at your employees, Smile at your vendors, Smile at your family and friends, Smile at strangers. Smile... the ROI will amaze you!" It got more than 30 likes almost immediately. I sent the same message (and photo) out on Facebook, with even more engagement.

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However, I think the true ROI of a smile lies in the bond it creates when we share a smile with others. People can't help but be drawn to you when you smile. So the more we make a conscious effort to do it, the more habitual the act becomes. The law of attraction states that "like attracts like," so the more you smile, the more positive people you'll draw to yourself naturally.

An investment in a smile isn’t just an investment in your own personal well-being—it’s an investment in the happiness of those around you. It creates an infinite circle of smiles. And isn’t that what life should be all about?

To schedule an appointment with Tina Reed Orthodontics, call us today at 412.421.8565 or click here to send our staff a message.

Surprising Smiling Facts!

We’ve always known that smiling is important for your self esteem, but new research indicates that it might mean even more than we thoughts.

Dr. Peter Collett, a behavioral psychologist, has outlined some surprising facts about smiling. Here are some of our favorites: A body language expert from Oxford has pinpointed six types of smiles: These include flirty, submissive, honest, secretive and dominant

• Keeping your eyebrows level while smiling makes you seem more powerful, while raising them suggests submissiveness.
• The ‘look-up’ smile can be used to appear seductive and flirtatious 
• It is also thought to be contagious because it mimics laughter
• Study has found that 67 per cent of women worry about their smiles and both sexes think it's the most attractive feature in a partner
• Up to twelve facial muscles are involved in smiling – slightly more, it’s been observed, than the number of muscles involved in frowning. 
• The most important of these are the Zygomatic major muscles, which hoist up the corners of the mouth and expose the top teeth, the risorius muscles which pull the corners of the mouth sideways, and the orbicularis oculi which contract around the eyes, creating wrinkles outside the eyes. 
• There are several things that distinguish fake smiles from genuine smiles. One is asymmetry, where the smile appears more on one side of the face than the other. 
• Another is the sudden appearance and disappearance of the smile. 
• As a rule, genuine smiles involve the muscles around the mouth as well as the orbicularis oculi – those supposedly involuntary muscles around the eyes – whereas false smiles only involve the muscles around the mouth
• Psychologists have discovered that women typically smile more than men, and men tend to reduce their smiling in order to appear more dominant.
• It’s possible to spot someone’s nationality from how they smile. 
• American smiles, for example, concentrate on the Zygomatic major muscles - the muscles that pull up the corners of the mouth and expose the top teeth - whereas English smiles often enlist the risorius muscles, which pull the corners of the mouth sideways, so that the lips remain sealed and the teeth aren’t exposed at all. 
• Researchers analysed the photographs of a large sample of women who had appeared in a college yearbook in the late 1950s. They then contacted the women and interviewed them thirty years later. They found that those young students with the biggest smiles had gone on to have the most stable marriages in later life, and that they’d also experienced fewer physical and psychological problems.

Click here to read the full article!