How Restoring Your Smile Can Help with Your Mental Health

Good oral health affects your overall wellness in many ways. Straight teeth ensure a comfortable bite and help you chew thoroughly. Then, healthy gums can help stave off other complications, including stroke, diabetes, and heart disease. But have you ever considered how restoring your smile can improve your mental health? The psychological impacts of a beautiful smile can’t be ignored.

Greater Self-Confidence

If you feel self-conscious about crooked, chipped, or stained teeth, you may often cover your mouth with your hand or maintain a tight-lipped smile. Correcting any problems with your teeth and gums generates a wave of self-confidence. This encourages you to smile, laugh, and communicate without underlying anxiety about people looking at your teeth.

Decreased Risk of Depression

Researchers from Deakin University found a connection between depression and oral health. In short, if you’re experiencing problems with your teeth and gums, your chances of feeling depressed increase. As an inflammatory disorder, depression can be triggered by inflammation in the gums (or elsewhere in the body). This means, if you’re feeling down, you should take a closer look at your oral care routine. Enhancing your dental hygiene could improve your mental health.

Boosted Mood & Physical Health

Scientists and therapists agree—the simple act of smiling has undeniable emotional advantages. It has been demonstrated that flashing a smile releases dopamine, endorphins, and serotonin into the brain, which helps fight off stress and promote feelings of joy. These feel-good neurotransmitters even help lower your heart rate and blood pressure for improved physical health as well.

Better Appearance

A 2011 study found that both men and women are perceived as more attractive when they smile and make eye contact. You are more likely to interact in a friendly manner with those around you if you are confident with the appearance of your smile.

Longer Lifespan

Emotions affect your personality and life outcome by influencing the way you think, behave, and interact with others. People with more positive emotions are happier, have more stable relationships, and are more likely to live longer than people with overwhelmingly negative emotions. It stands to reason that happier people smile more and, as already stated, smiling makes you feel happier. A Wayne State University study from 2009 brings the point home by suggesting that people who smile more intensely tend to have longer lifespans.

Enhanced Ability to Spread Joy

If you have straight, white teeth that you want to show off to the world, you’ll be encouraged to smile more often. As they say, “Smile and the world smiles back.” This phrase comes from the notion that smiling is contagious. When you walk around with a smile on your face, it lifts not only your own mood but also the moods of those around you. This isn’t just common sense—it’s backed up by current research.

Ready to improve your mental health? Start by restoring your smile at Park 56 Dental! Call our NYC dentist at (212) 826-2322 or schedule your appointment online today.