The majority of us don’t show our teeth when smiling for the camera – by why are we reluctant with our camera-ready smile?
48% of people identify the smile as the most important feature when taking a selfie and 57% say it is the most appealing attribute when viewing other people’s selfie shots on social media. Yet despite this the majority (58%) of Australians do not like to show their teeth when smiling for the camera. This according to a new survey titled ‘The Australian Camera-Ready Smile’.
When it comes to scrolling through friend’s feeds, the smile still wins, outweighing exotic locations (35%), adventurous activities (30%) and even who they are with (15%), the survey suggests.
Most people think that we smile because we feel happy, but it can go the other way as well: we feel happy because we smile, yet many of us are hiding our teeth behind our smile. While the smile is considered the most important feature for selfie shots, more than one in three (36%) do not believe their teeth should feature in their best camera-ready smile and in many cases (33%) say this is because they feel uncomfortable with how their teeth look.
The research, commissioned by the Oral Health Advisory Panel (OHAP) to better understand the relationship between the selfie camera-ready smile and a healthy smile, revealed that morethan 2 million Australians are not comfortable with how their teeth look.
Christine Morris, OHAP member and Public Health Consultant, comments, “We were alarmed, but not really surprised, by the number of people who are not confident with how their teeth look. We’ve long been aware that good oral health is key to good self-esteem, and these survey results demonstrate that.”
Poor oral health can relate to self-consciousness, depression, avoidance of social contact, and reduced quality of life.
Morris continues, “Poor oral health can have a significant impact on general health, not just how we appear in our selfie shots. However, despite the known links, people are still unaware of the impact that poor oral health could have on serious health conditions, which is nothing to smile about.”
Among those that do not like to show their teeth in photos they upload to social media, Gen X (40%) and Baby Boomers (35%) are more likely to feel uncomfortable with how their teeth look than Millennials (30%).
Christine Morris says, “With World Smile Day approaching [October 5], it is a timely reminder that establishing a good oral health regime, which includes regular visits to an oral health professional, not only helps to create a beautiful camera-ready smile. More importantly, it will help to ensure a healthy smile for years to come.”
