FIRST IMPRESSIONS
What do you notice first about a person? Most people will say a person’s smile is in the top part of the list of things that they notice about a person. So what does your smile say about you? Confident, shy, happy, angry, embarrassed? How does your smile affect the different aspects of your life? Do you find that you are not smiling much or worse when you smile you put your hand in front of your mouth so that you do let anyone see your smile? Does your significant other, wife, husband, suggest that you have something done? Or has it been that long and your partner has gone into apathy about it and says that they will take care of it when they feel like it.
Paul Ekman, PhD, a psychologist who is an expert in facial expressions, taught himself to arrange the muscles in his face to make certain expressions. To his surprise, he found himself feeling the emotions that he was mimicking. When he raised his cheeks, parted his lips, and turned the corners of his mouth up, he felt happier.
Furthermore, a smile has several other benefits that you may not realize. A smile is contagious and can make others happy. For example, have you went to social gathering and you did not know anybody. Then you start to smile and others are more willing to smile back and start a conversation. Like the song made famous by Louis Armstrong, “when you’re smilin’, the whole world smiles with you.” Next, with the smiles, it can lead to laughter. Have you ever tried to laugh when you are frowning? I have never seen it. When I try to cheer up my children and make them laugh when they are in a grumping mood with a frown on their face, they slowly change from a frown to no expression, to a small smile or smirk, then I can get a bigger smile and finally then they will start to laugh. Smiling and laughter has a couple other health benefits such as lowering blood pressure, improves blood flow, and reduces stress.
What now, you start to smile more but are self-conscious of your teeth. That may be due to the older fillings or chips in your teeth, broke teeth that you have tried to ignore, maybe they are just crooked and that is why you do not like your smile. Finally, you may think that they are too short or just the wrong shape.
Well, we can change the color, shape, and position of the teeth. You have options to change your smile. But first, you have to decide “what am I wanting to change to?” Some people can describe this in detail but the rest of us, we cannot but we know that something needs to change and just need some guidance. So we need to ask more questions, do you like the color of your teeth? If not, what color do you like? Then Do you like the size of your teeth? Too big or too small? What about the position of the teeth? What do you want changed? Lastly, shape of the teeth? Too boxed, not enough curves? These are just some of the questions I can guide you through to be able to give you the smile you want.
Best,
Ronald A. Murphy, DMD
FUN FACTS FOR FEBRUARY:
- The Welsh call February “y mis bach” which means “little month”.
- In the Southern Hemisphere February is a summer month the equivalent of August.
- The month is named for the Latin word februum which means purification.
- Together with January, it was the last of the months added to the Roman calendar.
- The Saxon term for the month, Sol-monath, means “cake month”. This is because they offered cakes to the gods during this month.
What our patients have to say
I’ve been going to Dr. Murphy for a few years and have always appreciated the care he and his assistants take with their patients since I had such a traumatizing dental experience as a kid. I appreciate them so much more now after taking my 2 year old to her first appointment and seeing how gentle they were and the ways they made it fun and interesting. She LOVED being there and her new toothbrush is her favorite thing right now.
Thank you again Dr. Murphy!
– Julie B.
