Australian hotel hospitality worker William Kennewell ignored repeated warnings from dentists that his fondness for soft drinks would rot his teeth and has now been left with a full set of dentures at the age of 25.
Mr Kennewell's addiction to the sugary drink even left him with blood poisoning.
He said: ‘I drank between six and eight litres of soft drink, mostly cola, every day.
‘I’m told a normal person has about 23 teeth, but I only had 13 left and they had to be removed,’ he told The Advertiser newspaper in Adelaide.
In fact, most adults will have 28 or 32 teeth, depending on whether they have their wisdom teeth, making Mr Kennewell’s initial teeth loss even worse.
Mr Kennewell, who lives in Salisbury, 15 miles north of Adelaide, added: ‘It started because I wasn’t a huge water fan and working in the hotel industry, I had easy access to Coke.
‘Because my teeth were decaying so badly, it caused blood poisoning which just made me sick – but my health improved with the dentures.’
Australian health experts are now using Mr Kennewell's addiction as a case study to show why youngsters should avoid fizzy drinks.
Dr Jason Armfield, senior research fellow with the Australian Research Centre for Population Oral Health has called for health warnings on soft drink labels to include the risks of tooth decay.
He has already conducted research among 16,800 Australian children that found 56 per cent of those aged between five and 16 consumed at least one sweet drink – a soft drink or juice – every day.
Mr Kennewell agreed that health warnings on soft drinks was a good idea – but he wondered how effective they would be.
It is little wonder that Mr Kennewell's teeth rotted, as the average 335ml can of cola contains an astonishing 39g of sugar.