There’s nothing wrong with drinking an energy drink occasionally. But Vinnie Pyner took that to an extreme and wound up snapping a whole line of his front teeth.
The 21-year-old East Kent College student had developed an addiction to Monster Energy drinks.
The college student was extremely stressed out and began to drink them more and more to keep up with studies and responsibilities.
Soon, it reached the point where he drank six cans every single day and couldn’t function or get his difficult work done without them.
It relieved the stress and pressure he felt every day.
Vinnie was studying BTEC Computing and Coding. In an attempt to stay focused, he began drinking Monster Energy drinks with each of his three meals in September 2017.
Then, he began to notice that he felt exhausted and would simply need those drinks.
The next month, a new term for the second-year student began. To save money, he started buying multi-packs that cost cheaper than individual cans.
Each pack contained four cans, but he soon found himself having trouble resisting the urge to just drown them all.
If he didn’t, he would get muscle pain and headaches due to caffeine withdrawal.
Tara, Vinnie’s mother, started to get concerned when she saw the multi-packs piling up and the cans all over his trash bin.
She didn’t think it would get too bad, though, and Vinnie was not careless with personal hygiene.
He brushed his teeth twice daily and carried on eating fruit and vegetables, but his consumption level was climbing.
Then, by Christmas, Vinnie had upped his intake to 6 drinks a day, or around 45 a week.
He started getting a toothache when he ate food, but didn’t think to tell anyone.
Then, one fateful day in March 2018, he took a bite out of an apple, and just like that, four of his front teeth broke in half with a loud crack.
Not knowing what to do, he tried to hide it from his mother, but she started noticing that he refused to open his mouth wide around her.
She demanded to see his smile, and she was shocked by what she saw: four incisors broken entirely, with his gum line clearly seen.
When a dentist took a look at Vinnie’s teeth, she was absolutely horrified by what she called one of the absolute worst cases she had ever witnessed in her career.
His entire mouth was full of rotten teeth.
When Vinnie understood and realized what he had done to cause this severity of tooth decay, he felt ashamed and shocked.
He took a big hit on his confidence, and he was so embarrassed he decided to leave college, temporarily putting his dreams of being a game designer on standstill.
For now, Vinnie is waiting on dentures to be made for his teeth, and he needs to have a whopping 24 fillings done.
He is unable to get jobs due to his teeth and barely ever leaves his home.
He hopes to be able to eventually get back up and continue his studies, but for now, he’s absolutely crushed and feels that Monster Energy drinks have totally ruined his dreams and his life.
