It takes us only 150 milliseconds to rate beauty...

The response to beauty is healthy and natural. If you were immune to beauty, you couldn’t enjoy the sound of a symphony, the smell of a rose, or the contours of a face – it could be a sign you are not well.

Even babies know beauty when they see it and the reason is now clear. Because we are hard-wired from birth to detect this all-important characteristic. Beauty, in other words, is unavoidable. The fundamentals of beauty have always remained the same. From ancient times to present day, we have distilled beauty into four basic elements: symmetry, clarity, harmony and vivid color. The next time you look at someone you consider beautiful, you will be able to detect all four elements, and possibly compare them to the elements in another person's face.

Survival of the prettiest

In women, declining fertility is written on the aging body, and men respond accordingly. The beauty industry is a woman’s opportunity to portray a vibrant self that continues to get respected and noticed. It is not cheating; it is merely a basic mechanism of survival!

Fashion can help accentuate that which we find beautiful, but it is different from beauty itself. It is a form of art, and a sign of status. True beauty resides in the human form; chiefly in the skin, eyes, lips, hair and teeth. This is the window. Everything else is window dressing.

150 milliseconds. That’s all it takes to scan a face and rate its beauty. And the rating is the same as if you took a solid hour staring at that face. In some ways beauty is like a gun; it doesn’t matter how fast or slow you pull the trigger, the result is the same.

Golden proportion

If you could give beauty a number, that number would be 1.618. Not very romantic, perhaps, until you know that 1:1.618 is also known as the Golden Proportion or Golden Ratio. It’s the almost magical ratio found in music, poetry – and of course, the geometry of the face.

Welcome beauty into your life

Writer Camille Paglia has said that our ability to perceive beauty and respond to it has been with us forever and that “beauty is our weapon against nature.” For many, the act of beautification is not just enhancement, but something more essential: self-preservation.

Beauty is becoming more and more accessible to everyone. Today, with the same attention to symmetry, form and shape, combined with advances in Cosmetic Dentistry and Smile Rejuvenation, you can have a more attractive smile.