Establishing historical data patterns within a dynamic dental epidemiological relational database

Dental epidemiological surveys have been carried out over many years in the Coventry area of the UK. The data collected from the clinical studies have been amalgamated into a single relational dynamic database. The one common thread in all survey data is the recording of the state of the dentition as a full dental chart for each school aged child. As the data has been collected from all schools in the area on an annual basis it is highly probable that many children have been examined on more than one occasion. In order to build up a pattern of the progression of dental disease it would be advantageous if survey records relating to the same person could be identified and tied together to create a historical set of records for an individual. This paper discusses the strategies available for the identification of related records within the database, specifically focusing on the use of the clinical dental chart data available, and the formulation of rules related to how the developing dentition changes with the age of the child.