25-Year-Old Soda Addict Loses All His Teeth

William Kennewell is just 25 years old. But there's something unusual about this young Australian: He already wears a full set of dentures.

The hotel worker had to have all of his teeth removed because they rotted from drinking too much soda, the self-professed cola addict tells Adelaide Now.

Kennewell drank between six and eight liters of sugary sodas each day, which is equivalent to about 24 cans of the fizzy stuff in a 24-hour period!

There are 39 grams of sugar in one 12 oz can of coke, meaning Kennewell was bathing his teeth in more than 900 grams of sugar each day — not to mention consuming more than 3,000 calories a day in soda (shockingly, Kennewell doesn't look overweight from his picture on Adelaide).

Apart from health risks like obesity, cancer, and high blood pressure both the high sugar content and acidity in inherent in sodas have been shown to wear away at tooth enamel, the hard dental tissue that protects our teeth from tooth decay.

Although we can't be sure of Kennewell's oral hygiene habits (we have to assume they weren't spectacular based on the evidence that he ignored dentists' warning to kick the soda habit and now has no teeth ), the harmful effects of soft drinks, especially after excessive and prolonged consumption, can't be ignored.

According to Adelaide, Australian researchers are now using Kennewell's story to rile up support for their campaign to place labels on soft drinks that warn about the risks of tooth decay.