Well, typical USB ports 2.0 or earlier ports have 4 pins and the port itself. USB 3.0 ports have twice that number staggered.
Getting a bright light and looking into them is about all you can do there. If you see anything out of the ordinary that could be the culprit. Not terribly likely though.
Aside from obvious damage, there isn't much chance of the pins touching. Googling damaged USB ports returns so many results...
You could also try blowing them out with canned air, maybe something got jammed in there.