Gum Disease
Many people will have an ‘opinion’ on whether or not beautiful teeth will help you get the job you want.
Generally, the Americans will say ‘most definitely’. Londoners are more likely to maintain that one’s talents, achievements and experience are far more important than ‘looks’. After all, we don’t suffer from the Yanks’ obsession. Really?
The fact is that there are innumerable studies (and not all American) maintaining that good looking teeth help job prospects, and so, bad teeth hinder them. Put simply, it’s a matter of common sense.
When interviewing a candidate for a job, of course we look at the CV, try to evaluate their aptitude, listen to their replies to our probing questions and so forth. Yet we are human and we respond on a ‘gut level’ as well and pretty powerfully too.
Essentially, providing the obvious boxes are ticked (more or less), we do rather want to ‘like’ the candidate… and certainly the candidate wants to be liked by the interviewer. I am not talking overt flirtation here; just simple human response.
The primary tool of attraction is the smile
Providing it’s not obviously ‘canned’, exaggerated, insincere or inappropriate … a warm open smile invites agreement, sympathy and camaraderie. Quite simply, you are certainly more likely to do business with, buy a product or service from or hire a potential employee who you find you like. You are far more likely to ‘like’ someone with a generous, warm, open smile (directed at you) than one who doesn’t have or use one! So if it’s the smile, it needs to be ‘open’ and if it’s open, it shows teeth.
Realise it or not, the teeth are the first aspects of the human body we notice
We make judgements subconsciously about people within seconds. If you have ugly teeth, do you think they will be noticed? If so what is the interviewer likely to think (even subconsciously)? What would You think? Of course, if you don’t care about your own teeth, or you have bad or crooked teeth, you may not, in fact, notice or care. Nevertheless, you most likely will. Just noticing ugly, missing, unhealthy-looking looking or neglected-looking teeth will, at the very least, detract from a person’s other qualities being sufficiently focused on.
Such teeth will be obvious and either result in an unattractive smile, very often preventing that person from smiling altogether or possibly making him or her attempt to ‘hide’ the teeth (smiling with closed lips or putting a hand in front of the mouth). This results in the absence of that open, warm smile and trying to ‘cover’ it makes it even worse, because (again, subconsciously), the other person will think you are trying to hide something, not realising it’s ‘only’ your teeth.
Of course, if you have an amazingly perfect set of white, straight teeth you may so impress and dazzle the interviewer that he or she may also get distracted from focusing on your other qualities. However, you may still get the job!
So, if you have job interviews on the horizon of it you’re planning to start looking for a new job have a look at your smile. If you’re not happy with it then book an appointment with us.
