Introduction: Child maltreatment is an important public health problem; the timely detection of signs and symptoms of abuse in the orofacial region places the pediatric dentist in a strategic situation, with the capacity to recognize, register and report suspicious cases.

Objective: To review the literature on oral lesions related to child abuse and the role of the pediatric dentist in the dental office.

Methodology: A search was carried out in the MEDLINE/PubMed databases from 2016 to 2020, using the keywords: "Abuse children dentist, child physical abuse, neglect dentistry".

Results: Pediatric dentists should have comprehensive knowledge about the detection of child abuse and their ethical and legal responsibility. All types of maltreatment can be presented in the dental office; in relation to physical maltreatment they report lacerations, tears of the labial frenulum, fractured teeth, avulsed teeth and hematomas; in relation to sexual abuse, the mouth is a frequent site of abuse and sexually transmitted infections such as gonorrhea are pathognomonic; late attention to oral diseases such as caries can cause severe compromises in the child related to dental neglect.

Conclusion: The pediatric dentist represents a valuable human resource in the detection and reporting of child abuse taking into account the type of orofacial lesions in relation to all types of abuse.