A British tourist’s beach holiday in Egypt turned into a near-death shocker and not the kind you post about for clout.
Steve Ellis, 42, says he was “nearly burnt alive” in his hotel room after touching a faulty bedside lamp that sent an electric current straight through the metal fillings in his mouth.
The same fillings people are now ditching in favour of polished veneers and “perfect” TikTok smiles. Ironically, Ellis’s old-school dental work almost cost him his life.
“I’ve got fillings in my mouth, so the electric was going up there – it burnt my mouth,” he said. “If I wasn’t able to get myself off the lamp, then I would have burned alive.”
It happened in his hotel room in Sharm El Sheikh.
Ellis touched the bedside light with one hand, got stuck, then used the other, which also got stuck, before being flung across the room. He was alone. He screamed for help.
Afterwards, he noticed exposed wires sticking out of the lamp, but said you wouldn’t have seen it unless you were actively inspecting it, which, let’s be honest, who does on holiday?
So, how is that even possible?
Metal fillings, especially older amalgam ones, are excellent conductors of electricity. It’s rare, but if exposed to a strong enough current, they can become dangerous.
There’s even a name for it, “oral galvanism”, when dissimilar metals in the mouth cause tiny electrical currents. Usually, it just feels like a metallic zing.
But in Ellis’s case, that current had juice.
To make things worse, the hotel allegedly didn’t take the incident seriously. The holiday rep reportedly asked his partner to lie on the report, saying she saw it happen. “I wasn’t going to lie,” said Ellis. “That could come back to us.”
Since then, he’s had ECGs, blood tests, and his hands now feel like they’re constantly tingling and burning, not ideal when you work with your hands for a living.
We’re living in a time where people don’t even desire their natural teeth anymore. Veneers, whitening, reshaping, it’s all the rage. But here’s your unexpected PSA: while you’re busy upgrading your grin, maybe check your surroundings, too.
Because for Ellis, it wasn’t bad selfies he had to worry about. It was being electrocuted by the décor.
Tourist ‘nearly burnt alive’ after electric shock runs through his teeth fillings at five-star resort https://t.co/UqTNG2qwND pic.twitter.com/DV35mVUpnU
— New York Post (@nypost) May 5, 2025
