It’s that time of year where everyone goes around the office, classroom and dinner table telling family and friends what they’re thankful for. Fan-favorites might include “a roof over my head”, “a loving, supportive family” and of course “money in the bank”. However, one thing that often gets overlooked is a healthy smile.
Naturally, teeth or smiling-features aren’t the first things that come to mind when listing things you’re most thankful for. There are clearly more important things in everyone’s lives. However, if you take a step back and count the reasons a healthy smile is beneficial to your every day life, it may just surprise you. We’ve outlined the top four reasons a healthy smile is something to be thankful for this Thanksgiving below.
Health
Maintaining a healthy body and lifestyle is always a great thing to have. This very well might be the most thankful-thing we hear each year, but did you know how much healthy teeth contribute to an overall healthy body? Studies have shown the mouth and body are not separate, and good oral health can help across the board. The risk of obtaining diseases such as heart disease, rheumatoid arthritis, diabetes, and autoimmune disease can be much lower with healthy oral hygiene.
Speech
There are three major players in the game of speech: lips, tongue and teeth. Removing any one of those would be like taking a part out of the engine of a car; it would not work properly. Having teeth in your mouth, whether they’re nature or dentures, is crucial in communicating with others. This is something that very talkative people should be very thankful for!
Image
A Swedish study was run a few years back where subjects were shown images of people with different emotions: joy, anger, fear, and surprise. When shown the image of someone smiling, the subject was asked to frown. Each subject had to change from smiling to frowning, which proved if someone is smiling, they’ll get a smile back. Being able to get smiles sent back your way is a major confidence booster. You can maintain a positive, upbeat image just by showing off a healthy smile!
Fresh Breath
Nothing is a bigger turn-off than being able to smell someone’s bad breath. It comes from the build-up of bacteria in the mouth, usually from a lack 0f daily oral hygiene. When you take the time to brush your teeth twice daily, your breath is guaranteed to stay just as fresh as your teeth. Good breath is something you’ll want to have on a job interview, first date, or generally all the time. Thank a healthy smile for that!
All in all, just remember this Thanksgiving: You wouldn’t be able to confidently smile and breathe around family and friends if it weren’t for your fresh breath. You wouldn’t be able to talk amongst everyone around the dinner table. You wouldn’t be able to chew up tasty turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, or pumpkin pie. None of this would be possible without your teeth and a health smile!
