What Does Your Smile Say About You? By Joanne Barker Reviewed by Alfred D.of webMD.

What Does Your Smile Say About You? By Joanne Barker Reviewed by Alfred D.of webMD. Want to succeed in business, fill up your social calendar, and get more romanceinto your life? One secret may be in your smile. Your smile -- simple, straightforward, and most important, sincere -- can attract more than admiring looks. A smiling face tells people that you’re an outgoing and intelligent person worth getting to know. "When someone has a big smile, it shows they’re willing to open up and expose a part of themselves," says Pamela McClain, DDS, a past president of the American Academy of Periodontology. Over the long term, smiling can benefit your health, perception at work, social life, and romantic status. With that much at stake, it's worthwhile to discover what your smile is saying about you -- and how to interpret the smiles flashed your way. Smiling Eyes Aren't Just for the Irish Many Americans look at the mouthto judge a person’s mood, but people smile for all sorts of reasons: anger, fear, embarrassment, confusion, to deceive. It’s really your eyesthat give you away. The muscles around the eyescan’t be forced to look happy. When people smile for real, their cheeks rise and the skinaround their eyesbunches up. In fact, in certain countries where suppressing emotion is a cultural norm, people look more at each other’s eyes to gauge emotion. A Smile Makes You Look Successful "A smile conveys confidence and professionalism," says Lily T. Garcia, DDS, a past president of the American College of Prosthodontists. People who project a positive outlook are generally more open and flexible. They tend to cope better with challenges than people who are withdrawn and unsmiling. A study that followed a group of women for 30 years shows the lifetime benefits of smiling. The women who displayed genuinely happy smiles in their college yearbook photos went on to have happier marriages and greater well-being. In the same study, a group of strangers looked at the college photos and reported their assumptions about the women’s personalities. The women who smiled were judged to be more positive and competent than those who didn’t.