Braces: Why Smiling is Important for Your Health

Your smile can have an impact on many aspects of your life. Crooked teeth and misaligned jaws can compromise your smile, making you lose confidence and self-esteem. Sometimes, these issues can prevent you from laughing or interacting with peers. An orthodontist may recommend braces for children and adults of all ages to address these dental health issues.

This article looks at how laughter and smiling can be beneficial to your health.

Induces Pleasure in the Brain

For a long time, researchers believed that smiles were generic and not necessarily tied to any feelings of happiness. But in the 1970s, scientists realized that smiling could activate the left anterior temporal region of the brain.

Smiling will trigger the release of feel-good hormones. It facilitates the release of endorphins, serotonin, and dopamine, which play a role in reducing stress. On research subjects, even a forced smile can induce feelings of general well-being.

Makes a Social Impact

Some parents fear that braces for children will make their little ones self-conscious, and in effect, limit their social interactions. But braces are meant to prevent or treat crooked teeth, misaligned jaws, and gum problems. These dental health issues usually play a more significant role in making your child self-conscious than the appearance of braces do.

Braces for children not only address existing dental problems, such as an overbite. They are also beneficial for their health as they grow older as they can eliminate future hygiene issues and pain of the jaw. It is recommended that children get evaluated for orthodontic treatment at age seven. At this age, it is easier identify and fix dental health issues, which will guarantee a confident smile for a lifetime.

What can a confident smile do for their social lives? It can make them look more confident and approachable. This can be important, given that interactions with peers and colleagues can boost their career prospects in the future.

Improves Relationships

Additionally, smiling could have an impact on romantic relations. A study on more than 70 couples indicates that laughter has a positive correlation with healthy relationships.

Laughing helps to break the ice and create opportunities to meet new people. It also elicits feelings of well-being within the relationship. After all, smiling is contagious. When you smile, you subconsciously activate feelings of cheerfulness in others. Whether at work or on a date, the other party will often perceive these feelings as positive vibes coming from you.

Boosts Productivity

Another reason to get orthodontist-recommended braces for children is to improve work productivity. As your children grow, they can be very self-conscious if they have conspicuous dental health problems.

A confident smile elicits feelings of cheerfulness and laughter. According to studies, these feelings are crucial in boosting productivity in the workplace. Research shows that happy employees are 20% more productive than their unhappy colleagues. It is also beneficial to the organization, in that it boosts sales by close to 40%. Happiness also enhances the accuracy of tasks by 19%.

Why are happy and smiling employees more productive? For one, they tend to engage with their peers more frequently, which boosts teamwork. Secondly, they also have higher energy levels and are less prone to stress because a smile often releases a ton of feel-good-hormones.

Extends Your Lifespan

Laughter can also increase your lifespan. It minimizes the risk of depression and stress, which can cause health problems later in life. It improves social interactions, which makes you healthier, both mentally and physically.

To be sure, one study showed that seniors were less likely to die within the five years of the study if they were happy, excited, or content. Researchers from Norway also discovered that it could reduce the risk of heart disease by 73%.

Key Takeaway

A smile, even a forced one, can elicit positive feelings of wellbeing. Smiling, therefore, is not a bad idea even if you don’t feel like it. Engage with others and adapt an easy-going approach to life. Don’t let your teeth or gums keep from you being happy. There are clear braces like Invisalign or ceramic braces for people who feel self-conscious about straightening their teeth. Don’t let your dental issues derail your important relationships and achievements. If you’re ready to improve your smile and have it stop affecting your daily outlook, call our orthodontist in Encino and Glendale today.