SMILE! Turn that frown upside down today, as it is National Smile Day. According to NationalToday.com, Smile Day was founded in 2018 by dentists Dr. Tim Stirneman and Jim Wojdyla of Compassionate Dental Care in Illinois. This day can sometimes be confused with World Smile Day which comes later in the year on Oct. 7. However, Smile Day is celebrated in the U.S. on the last day of May, since National Smile Month begins the very next day.

Have you ever wondered why no one is EVER smiling in older portraits? There is an urban legend that people did not smile in photos for fear of having their soul snatched, however it is much more likely and historically accurate that people chose to not smile in photographs due to poor dental hygiene caused by sugar and a poor diet. It was also an aristocratic perception during those times that smiling and laughing showed a lack of decorum, self-control or good manners. One of the very few exceptions to the cultural norm of not smiling in portraits was Leonardo da Vinci’s “Mona Lisa.”

Studies have been conducted utilizing yearbook photographs and over the years the study found the width of smiles increased over the years; indicating possibly that because those being photographed had to hold a pose for longer periods due to shutter speed on old cameras, their smiles gradually dimmed while they waited.

A French neurologist, Guillaume Duchenne, according to NationalToday.com, studied the mechanisms of facial expressions, and discovered there are two types of smiles: a Duchenne smile and a non-Duchenne smile. The former smiles with the eyes or is a genuine smile, whereas the latter is an ambiguous, non-genuine or simply polite smile.

There’s no downside to smiling, not in the way it looks, nor the results it brings us — so put on your brightest smile today and enjoy the day!