How many muscles are involved or used to smile

A Smile is one of the best facial expressions which can make anyone around you happy in any situation. To smile it takes not just your mood but also a lot of muscles of your face to bring a smile. Let us look at all the muscles which are responsible to make you smile. There have been misconceptions around that it takes a lot of muscles to frown and lot less to smile so it is better to smile, this is not true as the muscles responsible to Frown and smile are almost same in number. 

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• How many muscles does it take to Frown

Muscles used to smile:

Zygomaticus major – 2 muscles draw the angle of mouth upward

Zygomaticus minor – 2 muscles draw the angle of mouth upward

Orbicularis Oculi – 2 muscles, these are used to close eyelids

Levator Labii superioris – 2 muscles raise the upper lip

Levator anguli oris – 2 muscles raise the angle of the mouth upward

Risorius – 2 muscles draw the angle of the mouth laterally

Nasalis: Compress or Dilate the nasal openings 

However, the number of muscles differs from the type of emotion which the person is expressing and also differs from person to person as the smile patterns of each human are completely different.

We have to also keep in mind that there are different types of smiles, some are genuine which extends from one corner of the mouth to the other, fake smile, blushing smile etc. So in each case, the number of muscles responsible for that particular type of smile might differ. According to some researchers, the pattern of smile differs with various factors like – Age, Sex, Location. 

• Muscles responsible for various facial expressions

A Smile has been used since ages by psychologists and researchers to determine whether the person is saying the truth or not. As each type of smile like expressions are made for a variety of reasons, it is useful in determining the difference a fake smile and a genuine smile.