Table.

Characteristics of the 3 Study Groups.

	Romanian Group	Swedish Groups
	High Prevalence of Caries (n=14)	Caries Active (n = 12)	Caries Freec (n = 11)	P Value among Groups
Male gender,a %	43	50	54	0.840
Age,b mean (95% CI), y	14.4 (14.1–14.6)	17	17	<0.001
Teeth,b mean (95% CI), n	27 (26–28)	28 (27–28)	28 (28–29)	0.018
Caries status
DMFS,b mean (95% CI)	20.1 (13.3–26.8)	7.5 (5.7–9.3)	0	<0.001
Streptococcus mutans
PCR positive,a %	85.7	50.0	45.5	0.069d
DNA,b mean (95% CI), pg/µL	96 (60–252)	41 (26–108)	65 (35–165)	0.774
Streptococcus sobrinus
PCR positive,a %	50.0	0	0	0.001
DNA,b mean (95% CI), pg/µL	10 (1–20)	0	0	0.024
S. mutans and S. sobrinus
PCR positive,a %	50.0	0	0	0.001

CI, confidence interval; DMFS, decayed, missing, and filled surfaces; PCR, polymerase chain reaction.

^aDifferences in subject distributions were tested with the χ² test among groups.

^bDifferences between group means were tested with analysis of variance. Adjusting for the number of teeth did not alter the relation between groups.

^cFLX+ Titanium sequencing failed for 1 sample in the Swedish caries-free group.

^dThe prevalence in the merged Swedish groups was 48%, and testing of the Romanian group versus the merged Swedish groups resulted in P = 0.021.