The aim was to explicate persistent psychological and bodily memories of sexualabuse and how they are expressed during dental appointments. The participantscomprised 13 sexually abused individuals (11 women), who recalled and expressedthese experiences during a dental appointment. They were encouraged to describe,in detail, aspects of the appointment which triggered memories of the sexual abuse.The interviews were recorded, transcribed verbatim, and analyzed using QualitativeContent Analysis. The identified overall theme illustrating the latent content was‘An echo of sexual abuse transformed into (dys) functional reactions’. The first categorycovering the manifest content was ‘The inner invisible struggle’, with two subcategories:(i) mental inscriptions of the abuse experience; and (ii) consequences ofthe dental encounter. The second category was ‘The discoverable manifestations’,with two subcategories: (i) enigmatic communication; and (ii) expressions of bodilymemories. The dental appointment arouses similar psychological stressful reactionsas the episodes of abuse; both implicit and explicit expressions are recognizable.Dental staff can contribute to disclosure by improved understanding of the strain adental appointment can cause in patients who have been subjected to sexual abuseand familiarity with the associated bodily expressions.