Something to Smile About
As a comedian, getting people to laugh and smile is my job and being able to share this joy with people is an awesome feeling!
I live for that moment where you laugh so hard for so long that you don’t even remember how it started. Now you’re just laughing at the ferocity with which you and your friends have disrupted the ambiance of the cafe and all the people passive-aggressively typing on their laptops.
Honestly, I didn’t consider how important it is to have beautiful teeth until I found out how many of my friends didn’t feel confident in their smiles. Sarah is one of my funniest friends and can make me cackle until we get a noise complaint (then we lay low for twenty minutes and start up fresh again). Despite all the wonderful times we have spent laughing, she told me that before she had braces she didn’t like her smile and always made sure to smile with her mouth closed in photos. It made me a little sad to know that someone I care about felt like she had to cover up her smile to feel confident and beautiful in photos. Whether it’s at a party, with friends, coworkers, family or strangers, you should never have to cover your smile because it’s such an important part of who you are!
When it comes down to it, if you are actively covering up your smile, you are also covering up the joy that goes with it! At its most baseline scientific level, smiling releases all the neurotransmitters that make you feel good (endorphins, dopamine, and serotonin). These transmitters signal to your body that you are safe and relaxed which subsequently lowers your heart rate and blood pressure. This makes allowing yourself to smile one of the easiest ways to alleviate stress, making it more than worth it to invest in your smile.
Now, I’m aware that so far in this article I’ve come across as quite obnoxious with all my laughing, noise complaints and disrupting the peace but it turns out that I might not be the monster we all thought. Laughing is contagious and it makes the people around you feel better too. The section of the brain that causes us to smile back at someone is located in the cingulate cortex which is an unconscious automatic response area. This means that when you see someone else smile you are automatically programmed to smile back. According to a study in the Neuropsychologia journal, when someone smiles at you it activates your orbitofrontal cortex which is the area of your brain that measures sensory rewards meaning that when you smile at someone their brain processes it as a reward. Free gifts! It’s free gifts for everyone! However, for you to be able to fling these free gifts at the people in your life first you’ve got to be confident enough in your smile to share it.
If your teeth are keeping you from all your magical smiling glory then it is time to invest in your smile long term. The best thing about choosing to make this a priority through orthodontics is that once your treatment is done, it’s done. Forget having to come back for a million appointments like getting your haircut or your nails done, by correctly following your after-care instructions and wearing your retainer you ensure that your results are permanent and that your smile is always perfect. There’s not a lot of investments you can make today that will continue to pay-off forever and as I write this I can’t say I can think of a single one.
I’ve always tried to make choices that my future self will thank me for, easier said than done when cupcakes and tequila continue to exist but getting orthodontic work done is one of these choices. Your health and wellbeing are some of the most important things you have so let Greater Springfield Orthodontics make your most confident self a reality and schedule a consultation today.