Tooth Truths: What Your Smile Says About You, and Why You Probably Need to Change It

The old adage says your eyes are the windows to your soul, but science suggests that your teeth say even more about who you are. Researchers have found that they can predict a number of features regarding a person’s health, lifestyle, and personality based on the structure and quality of their smiles. Though you might not realize it, your chompers are revealing all sorts of information to those around you. For your own privacy, you should read on to learn exactly what they’re saying ? and how you can get them to shut up.

Your Social Status

All it takes is a flash of your pearly-whites (or your gunky-yellows) for those around you to understand your current and future place in the social hierarchy.

One study focusing on teenagers found that those who were open about their youthful happiness become more successful adults, earning about 10 percent more than the average income at age 29. Comparatively, adults who were glum in their adolescence were often found to make 30 percent less than the average income at the same age.

Meanwhile, when you smile also clues people into your social status. A person of high status smiles only when he or she feels happy, but people who lack authority and exist in lower strata of society tend to smile at others, regardless of the situation or their emotions. Thus, smiling from happiness is a privilege of the rich and powerful, and smiling too much shows weakness.

Your Marriageability

Maybe the reason none of your first dates have worked out isn’t you ? maybe it’s the way you smile. More and more studies are finding just how much your smile predicts your happiness and longevity in relationships.

In an analysis of high school portraits, researchers found that individuals who smiled more intensely, that is with more stretched muscles around the mouth and eyes, had a zero percent incidence of divorce later in life; you can compare that to about the 25 percent divorce rate of those who remained straight-faced in their pictures. Scientists believe that wider smiles may help partners share their happiness, keeping marriages stronger. Alternatively, intense smiles may indicate a happy-go-lucky nature that lessens the likelihood of marriage-ending emotions. Either way, letting loose a big smile may snag you a relationship to last the ages.

Your Physical Strength

In the animal world, many creatures bare their teeth, but usually, it is to show fear or submission. It seems that deep down in our lizard brains we still harbor that same sub-conscious reaction: A smile betrays physical weakness.

A study on professional mixed martial arts (MMA) fighters observed that those photographed smiling often lost their matches, whereas those fighters who opted for serious or aggressive expressions often won. Indeed, untrained participants viewing the pictures agreed that they might trust the smiling fighters more, but they would not bet money on them winning any physical contests. Therefore, if you want to seem more intimidating, you might just wipe that smile off your face.

How to Change Your Smile

Smiling more often, less often, or more intensely is a matter of habit; you have to practice to display the types of smiles listed above. However, there are other ways you can change your smile for the better ? namely, whitening your teeth for a healthier-looking smile. Here are some toothsome tips for a brighter, more attractive grin:

• Cut out habits that stain your teeth. Smoking or chewing tobacco; drinking coffee, tea, wine, or soda; eating berries and colored candies ? all of these activities add layer upon layer of stain to your teeth. You should replace these foods and habits with non-staining alternatives, like flavored e-cigarettes, water, and non-staining whole foods.

• Add more crunch to your diet. For a whitening effect, some of those whole foods should be crunchy ones, like raw, hard fruits and vegetables. Apples, carrots, and the like scour your teeth of sugars and bacteria and increase saliva production, which further breaks down potential stains.

• Stay cool with lip colors. If your skin has a warm tone, your smile won’t naturally look as bright as people who have cooler skin. You can counteract that with lip colors that have subtle hints of blue. You can look specifically for shades with names like “berry,” or “wine.”