Table 3. Mean difference between time samplings (T1-T0) and (T2-T0) for all monitored bacterial levels according to periodontal diagnosis and laboratorial techniques.

Diagnosis	Laboratorial technique	Bacterial levels	Difference	Mean ± Standard deviation	Signal test (p-value)	Mann-Whitney (test p-value)
Gingivitis	qPCR	Total bacterial load (primer universal)	T1-T0	-1,840.8 ± 29,467.9	0.83	0.96
			T2-T0	1,019.4 ± 24,730.7	0.83
		Porphyromonas gingivalis	T1-T0	0.6 ± 2.3	0.16	0.19
			T2 -T0	0.0 ± 1.2	1.00
	Culture	Aerobic bacterial levels	T1-T0	16.3 ± 101.2	0.79	0.02
			T2-T0	93.3 ± 239.8	0.004
		Anaerobic bacterial levels	T1-T0	6.0 ± 13.9	0.018	0.82
			T2-T0	5.1 ± 12.7	0.026
Periodontitis	qPCR	Total bacterial load (primer universal)	T1-T0	-4,456.6 ± 57,744.6	0.20	0.52
			T2-T0	-9,726.8 ± 55,713.3	0.81
		Porphyromonas gingivalis	T1-T0	0.1 ± 2.3	0.82	0.90
			T2-T0	512.0 ± 2,659.3	0.43
	Culture	Aerobic bacterial levels	T1-T0	107.6 ± 353.5	0.09	0.27
			T2-T0	53.7 ± 213.1	0.65
		Anaerobic	T1 -T0	2.2 ± 9.7	0.40	0.25
		bacterial levels	T2-T0	40.1 ± 192.0	0.03

Signal test checked if the following differences, T1-T0 and T2-T0, were different from zero. Mann-Whitney test compared difference TITO with difference T2-T0. Results were considered statistically significant when p<0.05 (95% confidence interval)