Department of Endodontics, Faculty of Odontology, Malmö University, Malmö, Sweden.
Department of Philosophy, St Lawrence University, Canton, NY, USA.
Eur J Oral Sci. 2020 Aug;128(4):317-324. doi: 10.1111/eos.12720.
The aim was to explicate persistent psychological and bodily memories of sexual abuse and how they are expressed during dental appointments. The participants comprised 13 sexually abused individuals (11 women), who recalled and expressed these 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 Qualitative Content Analysis. The identified overall theme illustrating the latent content was 'An echo of sexual abuse transformed into (dys) functional reactions'. The first category covering the manifest content was 'The inner invisible struggle', with two subcategories: (i) mental inscriptions of the abuse experience; and (ii) consequences of the dental encounter. The second category was 'The discoverable manifestations', with two subcategories: (i) enigmatic communication; and (ii) expressions of bodily memories. The dental appointment arouses similar psychological stressful reactions as the episodes of abuse; both implicit and explicit expressions are recognizable. Dental staff can contribute to disclosure by improved understanding of the strain a dental appointment can cause in patients who have been subjected to sexual abuse and familiarity with the associated bodily expressions.
目的是阐明性虐待的持续心理和身体记忆，以及它们在牙科就诊期间是如何表现的。参与者包括 13 名遭受过性虐待的人（11 名女性），他们在牙科就诊期间回忆并表达了这些经历。鼓励他们详细描述触发对性虐待记忆的预约细节。采访被记录下来，逐字转录，并使用定性内容分析进行分析。阐明潜在内容的确定总体主题是“性虐待转化为（功能）障碍反应的回声”。涵盖明显内容的第一个类别是“内心的无形斗争”，有两个子类：（i）虐待经历的精神印记；（ii）牙科遭遇的后果。第二个类别是“可发现的表现”，有两个子类：（i）神秘的沟通；（ii）身体记忆的表达。牙科预约会引起与虐待事件相似的心理压力反应；可以识别隐含和显式表达。牙医可以通过更好地理解性虐待患者在接受牙科治疗时可能承受的压力以及熟悉相关的身体表现，为披露做出贡献。
