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<p>Jonathan,</p>
<p>What you are looking for is WG2 N2093:</p>
<p><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.unicode.org/wg2/docs/n2093.pdf">https://www.unicode.org/wg2/docs/n2093.pdf</a></p>
<p>The proximal cause for the encoding of these characters was
compatibility with JIS X 0213. And in WG2 N2093 you can see them
cited in the chart "Enufour Gaiji for Dentists".</p>
<p>Then on p. 11 of the pdf you can see citations of the corner
angle notation claimed as part of the Palmer (1870) method of
recording teeth. Then you can see some other citations in Japanese
dentistry documents on pp. 13 through 16 of the pdf.</p>
<p>The scribbled Japanese next to each of the circled examples on
those pages says "example". The little triangle between two teeth
seems to refer to a bridge. Many of the characters in the range
23BE..23CC are not actually exemplified in these four pages, but
rather only in that Enufour Gaiji for Dentists listing. And no, I
can't provide any more interpretation of what each of them is
intended to mean.</p>
<p>By the way, the two medical records shown on pp. 15 - 16 of the
pdf are dated 1997, only a couple years earlier than the 1999 date
of WG2 N2093. So this usage of Palmer notation with these symbol
extensions was not some completely obsolete convention at the
time.</p>
<p>--Ken<br>
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<p><br>
</p>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 4/8/2022 11:26 AM, Jonathan Chan via
Unicode wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:CAMvaPyw8yNd+d6WmMbm5N+2P29wxZXQqk8YjE3qJ0FgVpepeuw@mail.gmail.com">
<div dir="auto">They're all named <span
style="font-family:monospace">DENTISTRY SYMBOL LIGHT</span>...,
and the Standard only says they're for dental notation:</div>
<div dir="auto"><br>
</div>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px
0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">
<div dir="auto"><b><span class="gmail_default"
style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"></span>Dental
Symbols.</b> The set of symbols from U+23BE to U+23CC form a
set of symbols from JIS X 0213 for use in dental notation.</div>
</blockquote>
<div dir="auto"><br>
</div>
<div dir="auto">According to Wikipedia the first two and the last
two are used in <a
href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palmer_notation"
moz-do-not-send="true">Palmer notation</a>, but it doesn't
explain what the rest of them are used for. The only historical
document I could find with some sort of explanation is <a
href="https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2000/00098-n2195.pdf"
target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true">document N2195</a>, but
it only explains how they're used and not what they're meant to
represent, why they need to exist, or what the circle, triangle,
and tilde mean. Based on some cursory searching it doesn't seem
like those symbols are standard in modern dental notation
either.</div>
</blockquote>
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