18 Mar 2016

To mark World Oral Health Day 2016 on Sunday 20 March the British Dental Health Foundation want to make sure everybody understands the enormous power that lies behind a smile.

We want you to take a moment and think about how a simple smile can be one of the most powerful tools at our disposal... and we all have one.

So to help everyone understand the power of a smile we have put together some of our favourite facts about smiles:

• Charles Darwin who was one of the first to really look at the power of a smile. He noted that smiling is truly universal, unlike other physical actions such as body language, or verbal communication, which differs from culture-to-culture, we all understand a smile and the feelings behind it.

• Smiles are hugely infectious.  So even if we don't feel much happier straight away, by smiling the people around us are more likely to smile, and that can then improve our mood as well.

• A smile can really have a big effect our relationships.  More than half of people make a smile one of the first things that people notice about others and one of the most attractive features people can have.

• A smile can also benefit our professional life too. A smile is seen as friendly and trustworthy; interviewers are likely to find candidates far more appealing if they go for a job interview with smile on their face.

• It really is easier to smile too. I am sure you would have heard that it takes less muscles to smile than frown, this really is true 43 to frown and only 17 to smile!

World Oral Health Day is an excellent opportunity to let you know about the power of smile and discuss how important vitally oral health can be to our confidence, happiness and health.

You may have heard recent press about the amount of children with oral health problems. New statistics revealed more than 33,000 children were admitted to hospital for tooth extractions under general anaesthetic in the last year alone.

We cannot let poor oral health stop our children from smiling!

It's important that we are all aware of the correct way to look after our oral health to make sure maintain our smiles.

Looking after our smile should be quite simple, if you make sure you follow our three key messages:

• Brush your teeth last thing at night and on at least one other occasion with a fluoride toothpaste.

• Cut down on how often you have sugary foods and drinks.

• Visit your dentist regularly, as often as they recommend.

Try to share a smile, not just on World Oral Health Day but every day, and bring a bit of happiness to those around you.

World Oral Health Day is celebrated every year on 20 March. It is an international day to celebrate the benefits of a healthy mouth and to promote worldwide awareness of the issues around oral health and the importance of oral hygiene to looking after everyone old and young.

It is a day for us to have fun - this should be a day full of activities that make us laugh, sing and smile!

To find out more about World Oral Health Day visit www.worldoralhealthday.com