What Your Smile Says About You

A smile is one of the most powerful tools of communication, setting the tone long before a word is uttered. It’s how you greet the world, and how the world greets you back, and a lot can be said in this brief exchange of smiles. Do you know what yours is saying?

Here at Volterra Dental, we want our patients in Los Alamitos, California, to have the confidence to smile broadly, knowing their expression is backed by white, straight teeth. While there are many components to a winning smile, we believe that the role your teeth play is paramount. And there are studies that back that up.

Here’s a look at what your smile says about you, and how we can improve upon it.

The psychology behind your smile

We know we’re dentists, but it’s always fun to dive into other medical circles to see how our two specialties come together in agreement, and looking at the psychology of smiles is one such area. According to Psychology Today, smiles not only provide valuable information about a person’s level of happiness, they are “key building blocks of the human sociocognitive system.”

The communication that a smile offers can make people more likely to, well, like you, as well as support and respect you. In fact, Psychology Today reported on a 2017 study that divided smiles into love, sympathy, or war by categorizing them as “reward” smiles, “affiliative” smiles, or “dominance” smiles.

Now, herein lies the rub: The smiles they studied were ones that didn’t show any teeth, which can detract or add to these smiles in appreciable and significant ways. For example, if you’re trying for a confident smile (a dominant one), crooked or yellowing teeth will offset your intent quite considerably.

On the straight and white

Bringing the discussion back to the dental world, there are several studies that delve into how teeth play a role in your smile. In one report, researchers found that straight teeth are critical to how others perceive you, and had an impact on assumptions about your health, wealth, popularity, and even intelligence.

Breaking it down, in a survey of more than 1,000 people, respondents found people with straight teeth to be 58% more likely to be successful and financially well off. And almost 38% of this group would consider not going on a second date with someone who has crooked teeth.

When it comes to bright, white teeth, the news is much the same. One study by P&G found that people were viewed to be more professional (65%) and more confident (61%) after their teeth were whitened.

The bottom line is that a smile backed by white, straight teeth, conveys quite a bit about you in the world of first impressions. So let’s make that impression one to remember.

Something to smile about

If you’d like to improve your smile through cosmetic dentistry, we provide a number of services that give you great results. For straightening teeth, we offer Invisalign®, which straightens your teeth with near-invisible aligners. We also offer dental implants, crowns, and bridges to help fill in any gaps.

If whiter teeth are your goal, we can brighten them considerably through our professional whitening, or we can turn to veneers, which tackle both whitening and minor imperfections.

If you’d like to enter a room with a smile that speaks volumes, please contact us to set up an appointment.