Did you know that 48% of 18-24 year olds have untagged themselves in a picture because they didn’t like their smile? The fact is, people care about their smiles. Loving your smile can add to your confidence and inspire you to show it more often, while being ashamed of your smile can do the opposite and take a toll on your self-esteem. Discover statistics that reveal what it means if you have crooked, stained, or missing teeth.
What Impact Do Dental Problems Have On Your Life?
Believe it or not, our smiles are powerful. They help us make a memorable first impression, reduce stress, and even boost our performance at work. When our teeth are plagued by crooked, stained, or missing teeth, we may lose our desire to smile. This diminishes your first impressions, makes you seem serious rather than playful, and ultimately leads people to make assumptions about you that probably aren’t true.
The Toll It Takes On Your Confidence
No matter what dental problem you have, if it’s visible to the world, it can have a negative impact on your overall confidence. Even with a perfect body and other attractive features, many people can’t look past a noticeably misaligned or stained smile. This decrease in confidence can affect your social life, dating prospects, and even your chances of promotion.
Poor First Impressions
If someone avoids smiling while making their first impression, they could easily be perceived as arrogant, angry, or stiff and serious. Similarly, smiling with a mouth full of crooked or missing teeth also says things about you. People may wonder why you haven’t gotten those problems fixed, or why you wouldn’t take better care of your teeth, even if the problems are beyond your control.
Loss of a Powerful Social Tool
Smiling provides far more benefits than most people realize. From boosting your happiness and well-being to helping you mitigate pain and stress, smiling is a truly powerful advantage in social situations. Most people prefer to be around happy people, so if your smile is non-existent or cringeworthy, it could seriously diminish your social life.
Statistics On the Impact of Dental Problems
While no one wants to be so shallow that they obsess over their looks, it’s crucial to understand the way common dental problems affect your life. From the way crooked teeth makes people assume you’re unsuccessful to the assumption of being poor that’s caused by missing teeth, there are lots of conclusions people make by simply glancing at your smile. Luckily, effective treatments are available for each of them.
The Problem with Crooked Teeth
A recent study revealed that 78% of Americans perceive adults with crooked teeth to be unsuccessful. People judge by the limited information they have when meeting someone, and a mouth full of crooked teeth causes people to wonder if you lack the means or self-awareness to have your smile fixed. As you might imagine, this can come into effect during the times that are most important to you, such as job interviews or chances for a promotion.
Women Particularly Hate Crooked Teeth
Another recent survey concluded that 77% of women would prefer to date a man with a receding hairline than a man with crooked teeth. This speaks volumes about how much a healthy, well-aligned smile can affect your life. If you have crooked teeth and are finding that your dates and relationships are short-lived, that may be the reason why.
Solutions to a Crooked Smile
While the traditional method of fixing a crooked smile is to attach metal braces, there are innovative clear braces treatments that are extremely popular. One of these clear braces options that’s more affordable than leading brands is the Inman Aligner. Experienced dentists like Dr. Roman Shlafer can provide Inman Aligner treatments to straighten your crooked teeth and restore confidence in your smile.
What Does it Mean to Have Stained Teeth?
Do you enjoy wine, coffee, or tea on a regular basis? While those are each popular beverages, they play a major role in staining your teeth as well. Specifically, drinks that have a lot of staining potential coat your enamel, and overtime, can darken your teeth into a brown or yellow color.
Assumptions Based on Stained Teeth
Unfortunately, the appearance of stained teeth is that they’re dirty and unkempt, but there’s very little relationship between staining and daily oral hygiene. Nonetheless, people make assumptions based on first impressions, and a smile full of brown and yellow teeth says a lot about you. Most simply, it falsely implies that you’ve neglected your teeth, causing people to wonder why you don’t brush, and similar assumptions that may be far from true.
Your Stained Teeth Can Affect Your Job Prospects
Do you remember your last job interview? Even without worrying about dental problems or the appearance of your teeth, job interviews can be stressful, as they’re pivotal moments in your life. A surprising 28% of Americans say that the appearance of their mouth and teeth diminished their chances of success at a job interview. Why let a problem that’s so easy to fix jeopardize your career potential?
Making Your Smile White Again
While over the counter whitening products, including strips, toothpaste, and mouthwash have become a multi-billion dollar industry, they’re not as potent or effective as professional cleanings provided by dentists. Dentists like Dr. Tyler Carmack provide high quality whitening services that can brighten your teeth by multiple shades in a single session. If that doesn’t work, options like bonding or veneers may be the solution to your stained teeth.
How Will Missing Teeth Affect Your Life?
Missing teeth can occur for a wide variety of reasons, including trauma, aging, and certain diseases. Not only will missing teeth cause complications with your oral health, but they take a major toll on your smile and your confidence in showing it to the world.
Missing Teeth Makes it Harder to Land a Job
An article in Desert News explains a sad but common story of Sally applying for a job. She crushed the interview and all of the managers loved her and recommended her to their boss, but the higher ups ended up going with someone else. When asked why, they replied, “Her teeth were crooked and bucked,” and “that’s not the image we want for our clinic.”
Many Options for Restoring Your Smile
Dentures, dental bridges, and dental implants are the primary ways to replace your missing teeth, and these treatments are far from equal. The gold standard of restorative treatments is dental implants, and experienced doctors like Dr. Keith Cooper can safely undertake that procedure for you, giving you the attractive smile you deserve.
Dental Problems Can Affect Your Entire Life
Although some dental problems can seem like a minor inconvenience, as you can see, they have a far more profound effect than that. Whether your teeth are stained or missing, crooked or chipped, people will judge you for it. Whether it’s right or wrong, the fact is it’s human nature, so if you want to achieve your full potential, it’s important to fix the problems you have with your smile.