A smile is worth a thousand words. Although they are most commonly associated with happiness, they can express fear, love, sarcasm, mischief. Not only is it a dynamically expressive nonverbal signal, it's also one of our most frequently used.
According to research by Aurora Health Care, 70% of our conversations are built upon non verbal queues, such as body language. In an article published by Forbes, it was concluded that more than 30% of us smile at least 20 times in one day, while less than 14% of us smile less than five times a day. Children are a whole other story, with some smiling up to 400 times in a single day.
The smile is powerful, positive, and good for your health. After exploring the power of the smile a little further, we'll get into some of the best smiles throughout history in the art and entertainment industries, as well as smiles in the modern era of cosmetic dentistry.
While they are most commonly associated with happiness, research published in a BBC article concluded that there are 19 different kinds of smiles, yet only six of them are related to happiness. Some of these smiles include the fear smile, miserable smile, embarrassed smile, and the contempt smile.
Smiling is also great for your health. In a study released in
Psychological Science,
a journal published by the Association of Psychological Science, psychological scientists found that smiling can reduce our body's response to stress, regardless of whether we feel happy in that moment or not. Researchers with the University of North Carolina and the University of Colorado Boulder found that smiling more correlated with longevity, as happier people tend to live longer.
However, it's worth noting that our grandparents and great grandparents weren't able to flaunt their smiles in photographs as we are with digital cameras and selfies. Covered in an article released by the Washington Post, Historians unveiled that our ancestors look so stoic and serious in old photographs because they took a few minutes to capture, requiring that the subject being photographed stay completely still.
Yet, even by the 1800s, when technology had advanced enough to freeze film in an instant, serious or even sad portraits were still preferred due to etiquette and beauty standards.
Naturally, smiles have also conveyed quite a bit of meaning in art, as well. During eras in which portraits dominated and adorned the walls of many residencies, there were two styles artists painted in depending on who their client was. Explained in chapter 10 of Charles Dickens' Nicholas Nickleby published in 1839, the portrait painter Miss La Creevy covers the distinction between the two.
Sometimes they say, 'Oh, how very serious you have made me look, Miss La Creevy!' and at others, 'La, Miss La Creevy, how very smirking!' when the very essence of a good portrait is, that it must be either serious or smirking, or it's no portrait at all.' ... In fact,' said Miss La Creevy, sinking her voice to a confidential whisper, 'there are only two styles of portrait painting; the serious and the smirk; and we always use the serious for professional people (except actors sometimes), and the smirk for private ladies and gentlemen who don't care so much about looking clever.'
- Miss La Creevy (119-120)
A smirk was preferred over a smile, as a smirk was thought to open the door to subtle expressions that an open smile can't. Smirks could convey curiosity, regret, boredom, mischief, and discomfort. A smile could also be flirty or condescending. Whereas an open-mouthed smile is a more telling, confident, far less subtle expression of emotion.
Some of the most famous smiles and smirks in art include:
- Leonardo Da Vinci's Mona Lisa (1503-1506)
- Frans Hals' The Laughing Cavalier (1624)
- Messina's Portrait of an Unknown Man (1470)
- Renoir's La Liseuse (1874)
- Andy Warhol's Marilyn Diptych (1962)
- Francesco Mazzola detto Il Parmigianino's The Turkish Slave (c.1535)
Other examples of iconic smiles include Buddha's and those scene on Ancient Greek statues.
Although smiles didn't become a cultural norm in photographs until midway through the 20th century, some of the most recognizable smiles from that time period include Marilyn Monroe's, Shirley Temple's, and Sean Connery's.
Today in entertainment, some of the most hailed female celebrity smiles include those of:
- Beyoncé
- Jennifer Aniston
- Mila Kunnis
- Kate Middleton
- Sofia Vergara
- Halle Berry
- Anne Hathaway
- Jennifer Hudson
- Ciara
- Jennifer Lopez
Some of the most renowned male celebrity smiles include those of:
- Brad Pitt
- George Clooney
- Blair Underwood
- James Marsden
- Paul Walker
- Taye Diggs
- Zac Effron
- James Franco
- Will Smith
- Ashton Kutcher
It is absolutely essential to love your smile. The more confident you are in your pearly whites, the more you will smile, which is great for both your health and communication skills.
The perfect smile isn't entirely heresy. In fact, research cited in an article published by Science News for Students unveils that symmetry plays a major role in what we as a species define as attractive. We are also more drawn to average features, as they are more familiar to us. Other important factors that play a role in the perfect smile include the color of your teeth, the size of your gums, the size of your mouth, as well as the color of your gums.
Here at Marie Simon Dentistry, we want you to smile as often as possible. It is our mission to help you achieve a smile you're proud of. Our professionals are experts in both cosmetic and restorative dentistry, as well as general and preventative dentistry to yield the best results possible. After all, a healthy mouth is a happy mouth.
