5 Ways Having a Great Smile Can Improve Your Life, According to Science

Because a winning smile helps you win at life.

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(Photo: Getty)

(Photo: Getty)

Presented by Oclean One

Your smile says a lot about you, from your dental health to your overall attractiveness. But having a great smile isn’t just about looking good — it can also have a huge impact on how successful you’ll be.

Here, five reasons why having top-notch teeth can improve your life:

1. You’ll look younger

A study from the Max Planck Institute published in the scientific journal Cognition & Emotion had participants guess the ages of 171 young, middle-aged, and older people from photographs where they were either smiling, looking angry, fearful, disgusted, sad, or had a neutral expression.

The results revealed that participants were far more likely to underestimate the age of a smiling person, meaning flashing a good smile can make you look younger than you actually are. Researchers said smiling faces are subconsciously attributed with youth, and noted that facial wrinkles are harder to spot when you’re smiling. 

Another study of 2,000 participants conducted for Nivea found that smiling takes an average of two years off your perceived age, and makes you seem more popular, confident and generous.

2. You’ll seem more successful

A study conducted by Kelton for Invisalign found that having straighter teeth is associated with perceptions of success, and people who have straight teeth are seen as 45 percent more likely than someone with crooked teeth to get a job — even if they have the same or similar skill sets.

3. It’s the first thing women notice

In a survey of 5,500 singles 21 and older from Match.com, 71 percent of women and 58 percent of men admitted that good teeth are the most important thing in a potential date, beating out factors like nice hair, good grammar, and stylish clothes. 

Furthermore, a study from the University of Leeds and University of Central Lancashire found that teeth are “the human equivalent of a peacock’s tail,” meaning they’re super important when it comes to mate selection. 

So, brush, floss, whiten, do whatever you need to do to get your pearly whites…well, pearly white.

4. Healthy teeth mean a healthy body

Believe it or not, the health of your mouth has a huge impact on the health of your body. While the exact correlation is unknown, research suggests there’s a strong connection between periodontitis (gum disease) and heart disease. 

It’s theorized that inflammation in the mouth causes inflammation of the blood vessels thereby increasing the risk of heart attack by raising blood pressure, decreasing blood flow, and increasing the chance of plaque breaking off and traveling to the heart. 

With that said, taking care of your teeth doesn’t automatically reduce your risk of heart disease but it doesn’t hurt, either. 

5. It will increase your life expectancy

According to the Oral Health Foundation, people who still have all of their teeth at the age of 74 have a greater chance of living to see their 100th birthday. Likewise, people who’ve lost at least five teeth by 65 have a greater risk of premature death.

A study published in the Journal of the American Heart Association revealed that having a history of periodontal disease increases the risk of premature death from any cause by 12 percent, and the loss of natural teeth bumps that risk of death up to 17 percent. 

The Oclean One

With that said, it’s clearly important to take care of your teeth and have good brushing habits for your health, success, and love life. But we know that you’re busy, and it can be hard (not to mention expensive) to properly maintain good oral health care.

That’s why dental tech startup Oclean launched a new line of smart toothbrushes designed to make it easy and affordable to improve brushing habits through personalized brushing plans, analytical feedback, and even rewards in the form of free replacement brush heads (and soon other swag) for the life of the brush.

“We want to change the way people think about managing their most important asset – their smile,” says Suring Liu, CEO of Oclean. “It has incredible power and Oclean is here to help people unlock this potential with smart, easy, personalized oral care.”

The new Oclean One smartbrush is available now on Amazon for $89.99. Get one now to upgrade your smile and improve your life.

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