On May 31st we celebrated National Smile Day! As a dental practice we love any reason to share smiles. One of our Core Values is gratitude, so needless to say it’s easy for us to find reasons for us to smile. Our patients make us smile, our teams make us smile, our careers make us smile. Sharing a smile with someone can mean more than you know!
As we celebrated National Smile Day a patient mentioned how smiling wasn’t always the norm, in fact it was “frowned upon”. We decided to do our research!
In early 1600s portraits you often see individuals emotionless and lacking a positive expression. This is because people suffer tooth rot and decay from poor diet and high sugars. As dentistry developed the smile slowly became more popular. In the early 1700’s French began to show their teeth in portraits, this was quickly rejected by priests and reformists insisting smiling and laughter showed lack of self-control or good manners. In the 1800s dentistry emerged, as dentistry developed so did an attitude of authenticity. By the 1950’s smiling in portraits became the norm and has developed into the smile we love to share today!