While there are many obstacles that children will have to overcome throughout their lives to grow and succeed, there has been one difficulty that a rapidly increasing number of children will have to overcome . This difficulty is child abuse. Every year, thousands of children around the world, from newborns to teenagers, are seriously injured and killed due to abuse. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Bureau for Children, there has been an overall increase in reported cases of child abuse and neglect. In 2013, there were approximately 3.5 million cases reported to Child Protective Services (CPS) involving child maltreatment. These cases involved more than 6.4 million children in all fifty states, the District of Columbia, and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. Child abuse is a very real situation in which millions of children find themselves trapped. Each year, medical professionals report just over 61% of all child abuse cases (Child Maltreatment 2013). Often, when the general public thinks about who can help a child, they think of the pediatrician. Many people tend to overlook other medical professionals who may be able to help children and spot signs of abuse. Some seem to forget that dentists are also medical professionals who can help children. Dental professionals are held to the same standards as doctors when it comes to reporting cases of suspected abuse. In fact, in most cases, dentists and doctors work together to gather evidence and build a case to protect a child (Guidelines on the Oral and Dental Aspects of Child Abuse and Neglect). Not long ago, child abuse was already present. as a minor social issue that was kept between families. Luckily, in the late 1980s safety advocates... middle of paper... human bites do nothing more than compress the flesh. This fact alone can rule out an animal bite. They then examine the child's bites to determine the offender's dentition. Determining their dentition will narrow down their possible age. This can be done by measuring the intercanine distance. The intercanine distance is the distance between the center points of the tips of the canines. A distance greater than three centimeters indicates that an adult probably bit the child. The bite pattern, size of bite marks and color of bruises should be recorded by the forensic team. This will keep track of the healing process of the marks and prevent anyone from confusing old marks with new marks in the future. Dental matches can be found by comparing medical records, photographs and x-rays of all possible suspects (Guidelines on the Oral and Dental Aspects of Child Abuse and Neglect).