Apart from the above mentioned zygomatic majors/orbicularis oculis sincere smile (known simply as ‘Duchenne’), and the fake smile, there’s around 50 different types of smiles that have been found, the following are the most commonly used:
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Tight Lipped: In this one, the lips are tightly stretched across the face forming a straight line and concealing the teeth, this smile is not so much used by liars as by people who have secrets or are withholding their true opinion or attitude towards something.You can observe this one amongst women who say something like; “That dress is really gorgeous and looks beautiful on you” followed by a tight lipped smile instead of revealing their entire thoughts and ending; “….you fat cow!”.It’s also used as a polite smile by someone who doesn’t like her company but doesn’t know how to get rid of them. -
Smerk: This is a funny one, smerking is when someone displays two different emotions on their face, the zygomatic muscles on, lets say the right side of the face for this example, will pull the right side cheek and lip upwards…but the right side of the brain controls the left side of the face and will have the opposite effect of pulling downwards on those same muscles of the other side, giving a smile/frown contradiction effect.Try looking at the example picture on the side, if you put a piece of paper right through the middle covering the right or left side, you’ll see two different types of emotions in the faces are expressed.This type of smile displays sarcasm. -
Shy Smile: This one works marvels on men from what I’ve seen, with the head turned slightly downwards and facing away while looking upwards and holding a Tight Lipped smile, it will make the smiler look more innocent, juvenile, playful and secretive, it is thought of as being mens favorite smile as it endears parental male feelings and attracts their urge for protection and care of the young females…popularly used by Princess Diana more can be read about it in the Eyes article. -
Compulsive Smiler: There’s some people who just smile a lot it doesn’t matter for what reason, with big permanent grins on their face all the time displaying most of their teeth they are thought of as being suspiciously happy, because they either know something you don’t or they are being fake with everyone to gain something out of it.This type of smile can be noticed by the lack of wrinkles around the eyes when they do, It’s not really the case all of the time though, there are people who are constantly genuinely happy and even when they aren’t, they will still smile 
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Teeth Display: Some people will widely open their mouths and simply display their upper teeth in hopes it appears they are laughing or are playful all the time, it usually works as it makes them appear happier, friendlier and therefore more likable amongst others and easier to approach.
This article is part of the Beginners Guide To Body Language series, please read the rest of the articles by clicking here.
http://sapientology.com/tag/types-of-smiles/
