Are you a laughing Lily or a faking Katie?

Say cheese! It’s the 32nd annual National Smile Month (May 18th – June 17th) and the Aloe Dent range has got something for you to smile about – naturally! Aloe Dent contains 100% natural Aloe Vera juice (and absolutely no chemical nasties like sodium Laurel Sulfate) with carefully selected active ingredients that help promote the health of teeth and gums.

In an age of cosmetic perfection and chemically bleached-out celeb gnashers, Aloe Dent have gone back to basics and asked Emma Gold (BACP accredited Psychotherapist) to analyse four celebrity smile ‘types’. So which one are you?

Laughing Smile like Lily Allen…

While the most typical smile exposes only the upper teeth, a laughing smile exposes both sets, making it the broadest smile of all, as well as a sign laughter is not far behind. Smiling is contagious and a laughing smile will light up the room and also provide a good facial workout using all 80 face muscles! Interestingly, while this is the most joyful smile, we make little or no eye contact during it. When Lily Allen’s happy she shows the genuine article, so it’s no surprise ‘Smile’ was the name of her biggest hit…

Dazzling smile like Angelina Jolie…

A dazzling smile encompasses your whole face and is characterised by a wide curving mouth with lips parted to expose upper teeth and shining, sparkling eyes. Genuine smiles are by far the most obvious as they are generated by the unconscious brain, so are automatic. When people feel pleasure, signals pass through the part of the brain that processes emotion. As well as making the mouth muscles move, the muscles that raise the cheeks also contract, causing the eyes to crease up, and the eyebrows to dip slightly. Angelina has the perfect dazzling beam, although if waking up to Brad Pitt doesn’t automatically slap a smile on your face, who knows what will…

Faking it like Katie Holmes…

Fake smiles can be performed at will but there are various giveaway signs. Smile researchers talk about the false ‘oblong smile’ which describes the shape made by the mouth when the lips are drawn back fully from the teeth into a kind of polite grimace. The eyes lack the warmth of expression that comes with a true beamer and fake smiles stay fixed in position, while a real one flashes on and off. So, sorry Katie, you’re going to have to do better than crinkling your eyes up and hoping we’ve not noticed you’re smiling through gritted teeth.

Toothy Grin like Madonna…

While other identikit celebs might have rushed to fix a gap between their front teeth Madonna is bold enough not just to own it, but to flaunt it. Perhaps she’s heard of the significance that this gap holds for women? Some regard this gap as the sign of Venus, the goddess of love while being gap-toothed was seen as a sign of a strongly-sexual nature in the Middle Ages, as told in The Wife of Bath’s Tale by Geoffrey Chaucer. In some African tribes, having a gap in your front teeth is the sign of wisdom and in France, they call it ‘Teeth of Happiness’. A wise move from a style goddess? That sounds like Madonna.

The Aloe Dent range comprises of three toothpastes, a dental floss and a mouthwash, used regularly this fluoride-free range naturally helps to prevent the build up of bacteria.

Products in the Aloe Dent range are available from Holland & Barrett, selected Waitrose stores and all good pharmacies and health food stores.