Smile for a Better Quality of Life

A smile is universal. Regardless of cultural background, most people understand a smile to be a positive expression. After all, people rarely smile to express that things are going terrible in their lives. You might not realize, however, that smiling can do more than exude happiness. A confident smile can have a number of benefits for your mood, your relationships, your social interactions, your employment status, and your overall quality of life. Park Ridge implant dentists, Dr. Maria and Dr. Thanasi Loukas, will explore a few of these benefits to help encourage you to smile more often.

The Many Benefits of Smiling

When you’re stressed, feeling inadequate, anxious, or out of control, a pleasant expression is often difficult to muster. Serious expressions can convey your level of panic to those around you, but a smile may seem fake if you’re feeling frustrated. Walking around with a genuine smile on your face, however, sends the exact opposite message—you’re confident, you’re in control, and you’re content enough to smile. Amazingly enough, smiling even when you don’t feel like it can release endorphins and help you get out of your funk

Better Health

The reason we recognize grinning as a positive expression is because we’re used to smiling when life is good. When we feel great and healthy, we smile. If you find reasons to smile, even when you don’t feel like smiling for the day, you can help reduce your stress levels, control your blood pressure, and improve the efficiency of your immune system. To determine if smiling is actually contagious, Swedish researchers collected data from volunteers who viewed a series of photos including happy, mad, and expressionless faces. The participants were instructed to create expressions on their own faces which might contradict the expression they were viewing. This proved quite difficult because the participants were not in total control of their necessary facial muscles when they tried. Scientists found this suggested the contagiousness of an unsolicited smile.

Visit your Park Ridge Implant Dentists

If your smile has suffered from dental damage or disease and you’re not as eager to show it as you once were, Dr. Maria and Dr. Thanasi Loukas offer a variety of cosmetic and restorative dental treatments to improve your smile and increase your confidence in it. To learn more, schedule an appointment with your Park Ridge implant dentists by calling Loukas General Dentistry at (847) 696-1919. Located in the 60068 area, we proudly serve patients from Park Ridge and the surrounding Chicago communities.