Think of a new-born baby. What is the first social interaction we have with babies? We smile at them and the baby too, in response, smiles back at us. This is known as the social smile. According to the WebMD site, your baby starts to smile back at you by the second month after birth. The baby’s brain is developing at an amazing pace at this stage and the baby realises that by smiling back at you, it gets your attention. Therefore, besides being a sign doctors to know that the baby’s brain is functioning right it is also the very first way we learn to communicate with others.
Back to Basics
Did you know your smile has major therapeutic and health effects on you? According to the Huffington Post, a study in 2012 established that smiling, even consciously smiling can reduce your heart rate and stress levels. Not just mentally, but smiles also work on a cellular level in your body. Smiling improves your cellular sense of balance and reduce the stress on the individual cells of your body, thus reducing chances of stress-induced cell mutations that can lead to the development of various cancers.
The secret to making a great first impression is a smile. Thinking about getting a better job or simply making friends, it all begins with a smile on your face. According to an USA Today article, a common non-verbal mistake made during job interviews is not smiling; which is kind of tough to do when you have crooked teeth or missing teeth. A problem faced by almost a third of all Americans and don’t forget, according to research mentioned in a Forbes article, you have just seven crucial seconds to make a first impression.
Of course, a smile is free, but some of us are not free to smile. Unfortunately age catches up with the first form of communication we learned as a baby and some of us have chipped or broken teeth due to some unforeseeable event or the other. People who are conscious of the fact that their teeth are not too ?presentable’ feel self-conscious and keep a closed mouth.
