The Impact of Energy Drinks on the Manual Dexterity of Final Year Dental Students

The dentistry training program has been reported to be a stressful one; and while academic pressures are high, the high level of dexterity skills that dentistry demands are often cited as a major source of stress. There is some research on the impact that caffeine in general and energy drinks in particular can have on academic performance, however, there is considerably less data on the impact of these drinks on manual dexterity. This study aims to test the hypothesis that there was a relationship between the consumption of energy drinks and the manual dexterity skills of final year dental students.

Identification of baseline caffeine consumption and selection of sample Baseline caffeine consumption will be identified by distributing the caffeine consumption questionnaire to all the final year students of the Riyadh Colleges of Dentistry and Pharmacy. Based on the caffeine consumption score the study will recruit 60 moderate. To avoid the confounding effect of nicotine consumption, the study will only recruit non-smokers .female candidates taken oral contraceptives will be eliminated due to the correlation between them and caffeine. Subjects with any history of renal disease will be prevented from participation in the study Test for manual dexterity Acrylic blocks (2cmx2cmx2cm) will be prepared using a standardized mold. All subjects will be required to prepare a box 2mmx2mmx2mm using a high speed handpiece (NSK, Japan) and a no.330 cutting bur. Each participant will be allowed two attempts to cut the cavity in each test both cavities will be selected for assessment. The ability of the participants to reproduce the dimensions (2mmx2mmx2mm) and the time taken to complete the task will be used as criteria to evaluate dexterity. The participants will be required to perform the test before and 30 minutes after energy drink exposure.

Energy Drink Exposure Subjects in the test group (n 30) will be given 330ml of an energy drink containing caffeine, sugar and taurine (Red Bull, Red Bull GmbH, Austria Vienna) three hours after the last meal in the other hand the control group (n30) will be receiving a placebo drink which is apple juice.

Statistical Analysis Dexterity outcomes will be compared before and after exposure to the energy drink using the paired t test. Outcomes will be compared between different groups and different time intervals using the two way, multiple measures ANOVA. All data will be analyzed using the SPSS ver.21 data processing software.