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4 Reasons to Love Your Smile

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A smile isn’t just the thing between your nose and chin.  It’s actually a bunch of muscles that are attached to your brain. There are scientific reasons everyone should be smiling.

Smiling Asheville residents who have Invisalign

1) Smiling Helps Reduce Stress

In 2012 scientists Tara Kraft and Sarah Pressman from the University of Kansas published an article in Psychological Science on how this works.

They had participants in a study complete multitasking activities designed to be stressful.  During these tasks some participants were told to hold chopsticks to their mouth in a certain way.  They were not told that what they were doing was forcing a smile.  The groups that were told to do this experienced a reduction in heartrate and self reported stress levels!

“The next time you are stuck in traffic or are experiencing some other type of stress,” says Pressman, “you might try to hold your face in a smile for a moment. Not only will it help you ‘grin and bear it’ psychologically, but it might actually help your heart health as well!”

2) Smiling Makes You More Creative

Research from the University of California, San Francisco suggests that being in a good mood can get your creative juices flowing.  When you are happy, more dopamine is released which is linked with motivation.  This increases your control over your mind which can also give a boost to the parts of the brain that are used for making decisions, learning and processing.

3. Smiling Boosts Your Productivity

In 2010 a group of economists at the Warwich business school studied the effect of emotions on productivity.  It came out strikingly obvious that the group that was happier and smiling had a 12% increase in productivity over the other group.

4. Smiling Can Improve Your Mood

For decades scientists have been conducting research about how individuals can be happy.  There are books out there on the subject and lots of theories, but one easy way is to just smile.  Even a fake smile will slowly boost your mood.  You may have heard the comment, “fake it ‘til you make it”. That’s right even a fake smile can help.

The best part about this all is that SMILES ARE FREE! Since even fake smiles help, there’s no reason you should not be smiling.  If you are unhappy with your smile and that prevents you from grinning ear to ear, Blue Ridge Orthodontics can help.  Call or Contact Us to schedule online a COMPLETELY FREE consultation.  You can meet with one of our doctors to go over your smile and learn about options to help you LOVE YOUR SMILE!