Even people who take their oral health fairly seriously might not fully understand the ways that a good smile can affect you overall. If science is to be believed, smiling can boost your mood, your health, and your ability to deal with high-pressure situations.
If people knew how smiling could improve their life, they might try and go through their day-to-day with a little more positivity. With that in mind, here’s what some studies have to say about how smiling can improve your life.
Faking it; Making it
Forcing a smile might not feel like it does you much good, but the science begs to differ. Psychologist Paul Ekman is an expert in human emotions, and he performed a study to test this very hypothesis. He measured the brain activity of students that were smiling genuinely and another set of students who were told to smile.
The results showed similar brain activity in both pairs of students, meaning that the act of smiling itself put the patients in a better mood, regardless of how they were feeling before.
A Better Medicine
As it turns out, the benefits of smiling don’t begin and end with your mood. A study by the Loma Linda University School of Medicine’s Department of Clinical Immunology measured the immune response of patients who were smiling. They found that participants with a grin saw an increase in their number of white blood cells.
A smile might not replace medicine, but if science is to be believed, it might very well help you fight off disease.
Smiles and Stress Balls
The connection between stress and other health problems is well-documented. For one, it can lead to an increase in blood pressure, one of the largest contributors to cardiovascular disease.
One researcher at the University of California, Irvine studied how people responded to stress by measuring their heart rates. She found that people who smiled after completing a stressful task saw their heart rate return to normal much faster than those who didn’t.
As you can see, the very act of smiling can make you both look and feel much better. By taking care of your oral health, we can protect your smile for a long time to come.
About Our Practice
At Weiss Dental Arts, we make use of the latest in dental technology to help our patients reach immaculate oral health. By staying on the cutting edge, we can ensure that the people who visit our office quickly and comfortably get the care that they need. No matter what’s necessary to give you the smile of your dreams, we’re confident in our ability to offer it to you.
If you have any questions about how a smile can affect your quality of life, we can be reached at our website or by phone at (847) 864-0188.