Did you know wider smiles are considered more attractive in today's beauty standards? A broad smile is one that reveals a lot of teeth (ideally symmetrical teeth) and doesn't have big dark spaces between your teeth and lips at the corners. One great example of this is Julia Roberts, the actress.
To be considered conventionally attractive, your smile should have the same midline (vertical line that splits the face perfectly in half) as your face. If your smile's midline isn't directly between your two central front teeth, it might look unattractive.
Scientists studied the perfect smile and found that people without broad smiles tend to hide their teeth the most when smiling. They showed that wider smiles are more attractive due to the correct balance of asymmetrical teeth.
The Duchenne smile. This one is the gold standard. The Duchenne smile is also known as the smile of genuine enjoyment. It's the one that involves the mouth, the cheeks, and the eyes simultaneously.
The smile's width should be no greater than half the width of the face at the same height as is the smile. The upper and lower lip should both be symmetrical, and their centres should meet at the midline of the face. All teeth should be straight.
grin. noun. a big smile that shows your teeth.
Definition of 'wide'
A wide smile is one in which your mouth is stretched because you are very pleased or amused.
The Charismatic Complex Smile
A complex smile lives up to its name. It's the most complex smile style, and it's also the most rare, found in only about 2% of people naturally. A complex smile combines the movements in both the other smile styles and adds to it a simultaneous lowering of the lower lip.
Ideally, your smile should reveal most of your teeth and form a gentle arc, sweeping back into the “buccal corridor,” the dark space between your teeth and the corners of your mouth. A little dark space is important to create contrast and make your teeth seem whiter.
Almost 9 out of 10 (86%) think people with good teeth are more attractive to the opposite sex. 74% perceive an attractive smile as important for getting the job of their dreams.
Americans tend to smile more often than people in other countries. Olga Khazan digs into a couple scientific findings why — it turns out, American smiles signal excitement, confidence, and also have to do with a long history of immigration. For more, read Olga's article, “Why Do Americans Smile So Much?”.
A wide or broad face is more attractive for a male in certain circumstances as it signals dominance. For short-term relationships, women are more attracted to a wide face, research finds. Men with a wide face are seen as more dominant and aggressive.
If you think there's no way to change the smile you're born with, outside of plastic surgery, think again. Smile exercises are a real thing that can make your smile bigger. That's right — if you build up the muscles around your mouth a little, they'll open your smile up to show more of those pearly whites.
Science says a cheerful facial expression may compensate for relative unattractiveness. In two experiments, researchers in Switzerland examined the relationship between attractiveness and smiling. They found that the stronger the smile, the more attractive a face looked.
In a poll of 5,000 men and women, Match.com found that a beautiful smile was the number one attractive quality.
Tooth Shape and Gender Perception
The incisors, the large, flat teeth in the front of your smile, are key to the perception of your smile. In a masculine smile, these teeth should be large and square, with little if any rounding or tapering. In a feminine smile, these teeth are more rounded and may be more tapered.
According to a study done by the ADA, smiles are the most attractive physical feature on a person, as many people find smiles more appealing than eyes, hair, or body shape.
1. Mona Lisa. Without a doubt, Leonardo DaVinci's Mona Lisa has the most famous smile of all time. Although she doesn't show her teeth (perhaps a wise decision given the state of sixteenth-century dental practices), her mysterious smirk has captivated audiences for centuries.
Friendly, trustworthy, and agreeable
When you flash a genuine smile, it's an open invitation saying you're friendly and willing to interact with others. You're also perceived as more trustworthy and agreeable. A true smile shows you're willing to cooperate and that you're worthy of another person's time and attention.
Open Mouth Smile
An open-mouth smile conveys an abundance of warmth, delight, and openness. A Duchenne smile is an open mouth smile, and often flirtatious smiles are open-mouthed as well. Often accompanied by laughter or a backward head tilt, an open mouth smile is seldom forced or faked.
Optimist. Someone who is an optimist tends to always expect that good and happy things will happen. People who smile a lot are characterized by an optimistic view of life.
Though the logic behind it might seem a bit silly, it is deemed a sexy smile because the front two teeth are usually the longest when they first come in after your baby teeth before they are ground down over time. Thus, longer front teeth are associated with youth, warmth and thus sex appeal.
It turns out that there's a magic number of upper teeth to have on show for an appealing and youthful smile and that's at least eight, says dentist Dr Rhona Eskander, who is increasingly helping her clients achieve that coveted wider smile.
adjective. ˈwīd-ˈmau̇t͟hd -ˈmau̇tht. variants or less commonly widemouthed. : having one's mouth opened wide. The spectators were wide-mouthed with awe.