{"id":1117,"date":"2021-08-04T22:03:34","date_gmt":"2021-08-04T22:03:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mydentalpracticeblog.com\/graystonedental\/dental-care-blog\/improving-our-mood-and-health-with-smiles\/"},"modified":"2021-08-05T03:24:38","modified_gmt":"2021-08-05T03:24:38","slug":"improving-our-mood-and-health-with-smiles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mydentalpracticeblog.com\/graystonedental\/dental-care-blog\/improving-our-mood-and-health-with-smiles\/","title":{"rendered":"Improving Our Mood and Health With Smiles"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.mydentalpracticeblog.com\/graystonedental\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/106\/2021\/08\/smile-for-health-2021_543.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"543\" height=\"543\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-1118\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.mydentalpracticeblog.com\/graystonedental\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/106\/2021\/08\/smile-for-health-2021_543.jpg 543w, https:\/\/www.mydentalpracticeblog.com\/graystonedental\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/106\/2021\/08\/smile-for-health-2021_543-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.mydentalpracticeblog.com\/graystonedental\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/106\/2021\/08\/smile-for-health-2021_543-150x150.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 543px) 100vw, 543px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><b>THE OLD LINE<\/b> \u201cit takes fewer muscles to smile than frown\u201d isn\u2019t actually true. It takes at least ten muscles to smile but as few as six to frown, so maybe the saying should be something like \u201cyou burn more calories when you smile than when you frown!\u201d instead. However, getting a better workout isn\u2019t the only benefit we get from smiling!<\/p>\n<h3>The Feedback Loop Between Smiling and Happiness<\/h3>\n<p>Obviously, we smile when we\u2019re happy, but evidence shows that the very act of smiling might make us feel happier. Smiling is so closely linked to the feeling of happiness in our brains that <strong>even a fake smile can release endorphins<\/strong> \u2014 the feel-good hormone \u2014 and make us feel better. The next time you\u2019re having a rough day, try flashing a smile and see if that helps a little!<\/p>\n<h3>We Reduce Pain and Stress by Smiling<\/h3>\n<p>Those endorphins we get from smiling can do a lot of helpful things besides just contributing to a better mood. Short-term, <strong>endorphins help to reduce pain and relieve stress<\/strong> because they function in a similar way to painkillers (except without the side effects).<\/p>\n<p>A 2012 experiment tested how long it took subjects\u2019 heart rates to return to normal after completing a stressful task, and <strong>the smiling subjects recovered faster<\/strong>. The way the experiment worked was that the non-smiling group had to hold a pencil between their lips while they did the task (forcing a more pout-like expression), while the smiling group had to hold the pencil between their teeth (forcing more of a smile).<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/uqGnsTK41-o?rel=0\" width=\"543\" height=\"305\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h3>The Long-Term Benefits of Smiling: A Better Immune System!<\/h3>\n<p>Those short-term endorphin effects are great, but it doesn\u2019t even stop there! Over time, when we make a habit of smiling more, <strong>the effects compound into long-term health benefits<\/strong> like making us more resilient against illnesses and reducing our risk of getting cancer. The reason for this is that the better we manage our stress, the fewer stress-induced mutations our cells go through over the years.<\/p>\n<h3>Smile More, Live Longer<\/h3>\n<p>People typically perceive a smiling face as being more attractive and younger than a non-smiling face, and that\u2019s not just about appearances. Over the course of a lifetime of smiling, we might accrue enough health benefits to actually live longer. One way to make it easier to smile more is to be proud of the way our smiles look because we have healthy teeth and gums. For that, <strong>we need great dental health habits and regular professional dental care<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<h3>Bring Your Beautiful Smile to the Dentist!<\/h3>\n<p>Don\u2019t fight the battle for your smile\u2019s health on your own; the dentist can help. Schedule regular cleaning appointments to get that professional deep clean and catch any problems while they are still small, and bring any questions you have about dental health with you!<\/p>\n<h4>Nothing makes us smile quite like our patients!<\/h4>\n<h6>Top image used under <span style=\"color: #2a7abd;\"><a style=\"color: #2a7abd;\" href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/share-your-work\/public-domain\/cc0\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">CC0 Public Domain license<\/a><\/span>. Image cropped and modified from original.<\/h6>\n<h6><span style=\"color: #d9d9d9;\">The content on this blog is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of qualified health providers with questions you may have regarding medical conditions.<\/span><\/h6>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><b>THE OLD LINE<\/b> \u201cit takes fewer muscles to smile than frown\u201d isn\u2019t actually true. It takes at&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":1118,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[176,179,184,180,182,181],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[41,101,186,222,31,470,527,528,37,529,530,531,436,532,32,533,28,27,33,156],"class_list":["post-1117","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","category-dental-posts","category-endo","category-general-dental","category-ortho","category-pediatric","category-176","category-179","category-184","category-180","category-182","category-181","description-off"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mydentalpracticeblog.com\/graystonedental\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1117"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mydentalpracticeblog.com\/graystonedental\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mydentalpracticeblog.com\/graystonedental\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mydentalpracticeblog.com\/graystonedental\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mydentalpracticeblog.com\/graystonedental\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1117"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.mydentalpracticeblog.com\/graystonedental\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1117\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mydentalpracticeblog.com\/graystonedental\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1118"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mydentalpracticeblog.com\/graystonedental\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mydentalpracticeblog.com\/graystonedental\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mydentalpracticeblog.com\/graystonedental\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1117"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mydentalpracticeblog.com\/graystonedental\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=1117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}