The Problem Of Child Abuse

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While there are many obstacles children will have to overcome in their lifetime to grow and be successful, there has been one hardship that a rapidly increasing amount of children will have to overcome. This hardship is child abuse. Thousands of children across the globe from infants to teenagers are seriously injured and killed due to abuse, every year. According to U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Children’s Bureau, there has been a general increase in reported cases of child abuse and neglect. In 2013, there were around 3.5 million case referrals to Child Protective Services (CPS) regarding child maltreatment. These cases involved over 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 that millions of children find themselves stuck in. Each year medical professionals report a little over 61% of all child abuse cases (Child Maltreatment 2013). Frequently, when the general public thinks about who can help a child, they think of a 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 dentist are also medical professionals who can reach out to children who can help. Dental professionals are held to the same standards that medical doctors are when it comes to reporting cases of suspected abuse. In fact, in most cases, dentists and medical doctors team up to help gather any evidence to build a case to protect a child (Guideline on Oral and Dental Aspects of Child Abuse and Neglect).
Not too long ago, child abuse was once seen as a minor social issue that was kept between families. Thankfully, in the late 1980’s advocates for the safe...

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...e human bites just compress the flesh. This fact alone can rule out an animal bite. Next they examine the bites on the child to determine the dentition of the perpetrator. Determining dentition will narrow down their possible ages. This can be done by measuring the intercanine distance. Intercanine distance is the distance between center points of the cuspid tips. A distance greater than three centimeters indicates that it was likely an adult who bite the child. The pattern of the bite, size of the bite marks and color of the bruising should be recorded by the forensic team. This will keep track of the marks healing process and keep anyone from mistaking old marks for new marks in the future. Dental matches can be found by comparing dental records, photographs and radiographs of all possible suspects (Guidelines on Oral and Dental Aspects of Child Abuse and Neglect).

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