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First impressions are very important, especially during job interviews. When preparing for an interview, we tend to put a lot of thought into our outfits, one thing that is often overlooked is teeth. Of course, you talk with your mouth so your teeth will be clearly visible. But how much influence do your teeth have during a job interview? And do your teeth also affect your performance at work?
The research
PlusDental, a company specialized in making braces, was curious to find out more. So in 2020, they surveyed 5,000 HR employees from various countries asking questions about the influence of teeth in relation to job performance and job interviews. In it, they distinguished between seven different professions. For each profession, they rated importance on a scale from 1, where teeth have no influence, to 7, where teeth play an important role. For this article, I will only focus on the results from the Netherlands.
How much influence do your teeth have during a job interview?
The research shows that Dutch HR employees like to see well maintained teeth during job interviews. Good teeth are reasonably important for positions such as data analyst, programmer, and telemarketer (score 4). Given that these are not customer-facing jobs, the results are interesting. In fact, with data analyst and programmer jobs, HR employees said that an attractive smile does not influence the employees’ performance (score 2). Interestingly enough, they felt that for telemarketers good teeth have a reasonable influence on performance at work (score 4).
During job interviews for positions such as customer advisor, caregiver, and sales staff, an attractive smile is considered very important (score 7). For all three jobs, good teeth influence whether someone continues to a second interview. But even in these positions, HR employees admit teeth play a more important role in the application procedure than on the job. Caregivers and sales staff score a 6 among HR employees, which is one point lower than during job interviews. Only the customer advisor proves teeth are just as important in both cases (score 7).
Beautiful teeth are above all a preference
This research shows once again how people are judged on their appearance during job interviews. Even when beautiful teeth have no added value on job performance, people still find well-maintained teeth important. Simply because we as humans find them more attractive. And here you have yet another reason to take good care of your teeth.
Greetings,