create a hidden form element in the form named OrigTitle and bind it to the title column from the recordset. create another hidden element named OrigPermaLink and bind it to the perma link column of the recordset. then use the following code for the permalink binding:
<?php echo(($_POST["careerTitle"] != $_POST["OrigTitle"])?strtolower(((isset($_POST["careerTitle"]))?str_replace(" ","-",$_POST["careerTitle"]).(($row_rsOccurrencePermalink["occurrenceCount"] > 0)?"-".$row_rsOccurrencePermalink["occurrenceCount"]:""):"")):$_POST["OrigPermaLink"]); ?>
this will compare the posted title to the origianl title and create the perma link if it is different, or use the original perma link if not.