Workplace Wellbeing: Does fortune smile on people with good teeth?

Studies suggest a bright smile can lead to a bright future in the workplace. But perfect pearly whites won’t dazzle managers if employees don’t perform well

Pic: iStock

Jazz singer Louis Armstrong may have been onto something when he sang, ‘When you’re smiling, the whole world smiles with you.’ 

Studies show that having a shiny set of pearly whites affects how people perceive you and could even affect your success in the workplace.

In a 2013 study of 1,047 people in the US, a job applicant with straight white teeth was considered 45% more likely to get the position than one with the same skills and experience but with misaligned or yellowing teeth.

It’s not just in America, the land of the dazzlingly bright Hollywood smile, that choppers are considered crucial to career progression. 

A 2016 YouGov study of 2,028 adults in Britain found that 62% believed candidates with visibly decaying or missing teeth would be disadvantaged when applying for a job. 

Some 60% also thought having a less-than-perfect set of teeth would hinder promotion.

Dentist Dr Aleena Bhatti at Dental Options in Dublin says our teeth communicate a lot about our wellbeing. 

“If you have good teeth, it implies you take care of yourself, which impacts positively on how you are seen at work. If there are obvious issues with your teeth — if they are misaligned, decayed or stained — that can make people think the opposite.”

According to body image expert Dr Ciara Mahon, from the University College Dublin School of Psychology, humans are primed to judge others based on their physical appearance. 

“In our primaeval past,” she says, “this often determined whether we lived, died, or had the opportunity to procreate. We form initial impressions of others based solely on their facial appearance, and we do this very quickly, in less than 100 milliseconds. Evolutionary theories argue that this was adaptive for survival and helped us identify friend from foe.

“When scanning and analysing someone’s appearance, we have long paid particular attention to teeth. Teeth are used by animals to communicate various things, including attraction, conveyed by smiling, and aggression, conveyed by baring their teeth. So they are among the first things people notice.”

She adds we judge teeth by symmetry and colour because we associate straight white teeth with health and youth. They signify good genes and good health, whereas decayed or stained teeth can indicate poor health and advanced age.

Dr Aleena Bhatti, Dental Options, Dublin

Looks matter to a point

We don’t limit our judgement of others to their teeth either. For example, we also discriminate by height, as was found by a 2004 University of Florida study which showed that for every extra inch of height, a worker can expect to earn an additional $789 per year.

We also give preferential treatment to women with blonde hair. In 2010, an Australian study of 12,686 women found that blondes earned 7% more than women with any other hair colour.

It has a lot to do with what Mahon calls the halo effect or when we assume that physically attractive people have positive attributes.

“ A study in 2000 found that we perceive attractive individuals as being more socially competent, intelligent and popular,” she says. 

“These perceptions tend to result in more favourable treatment of and behaviour towards attractive people. For example, research shows that they tend to earn higher salaries and elicit higher levels of cooperation from their peers.”

These findings may be discouraging news for those of us whose teeth are less than perfect. 

The flip side of the halo effect, which bestows negative attributes on those whose appearance is less than ideal, may explain why villains in popular culture are often depicted with poor teeth.

It could also explain the findings of a study carried out in Britain in 2011, which showed that individuals who do not conform to our beauty ideals tended to experience more negative prejudice, peer victimisation and lower self-esteem.

We can internalise these judgements, allowing them to affect our behaviour at work and in our lives more generally, says Bhatti. 

“Not feeling confident about your teeth can affect how you speak and communicate. I have clients who come in to see me who aren’t confident speaking because they don’t like showing their teeth.”

I can empathise. One day, when I was cycling the potholed roads of West Kerry as a teenager, I lost my balance and fell, bashing my front tooth on the handlebars of my bike. 

That tooth grew increasingly discoloured and I came to hate my smile. I’d cover my mouth when speaking and always pose for photos with my mouth clamped shut.

Bhatti has seen many clients who hide their teeth in this way. “It has a detrimental effect on their lives and can hold them back at work because it impacts how they communicate with those around them,” she says.

Dr Ciara Mahon, University College Dublin School of Psychology

First impressions

Our increasing use of technology at work and in our personal lives may have exacerbated our self-consciousness about our teeth.

“Since the pandemic, when we moved to online video calls for work, we’ve been looking at ourselves and our teeth and comparing them to other people’s teeth more than ever before,” says Bhatti.

The media has an impact too, social media in particular. 

“On a daily basis, we’re exposed to a plethora of images of people with the perfect smile and selfies and filters have facilitated ideal standards around appearance to be more widespread than ever,” says Mahon. 

“Straight white teeth appear omnipresent, and people come to believe it’s the norm.”

She adds that straight white teeth have become a status symbol, signifying that a person has the money, time and energy required to invest in their appearance.

Bhatti believes societal pressures are driving people to pay more attention to their teeth.

“Self-care is a growing phenomenon, with people looking after themselves a lot better than they used to,” she says. “That includes looking after their teeth.”

Instead of obsessing about what others think of our teeth, Mahon says that first impressions aren’t as critically important as we believe.

“We revise these judgements as more information comes in,” she says.

“Our appearance is only one aspect of our identity. There is so much more to us and our self-worth than how we look.”

Our work ethic is one. Work performance will ultimately say more about a person than their teeth ever could. “It’s what will shine through and stick with people over the longer term,” says Mahon.

She also recommends addressing how we see ourselves by focusing on attributes other than our appearance. 

“Thinking of the skills, personality traits and interests we have can be helpful in terms of building our confidence in who we are as a person,” she says.

I put off getting my discoloured tooth seen for years due to a needle phobia. But by the time I turned 20, I’d become tired of hiding my smile and asked my dentist to do something about it.

It instantly transformed the way I interacted with people. I had a Saturday job in a café at the time and used to be pretty monosyllabic around customers. 

Once my smile had been restored, I felt less self-conscious and became much chattier. As a result, I got far more tips, which helped to pay for the cost of the treatment.