Table 1.

Amount of Streptococcus mutans, expressed as the logarithm of the number of colony forming units (CFUs) per ml of saliva, measured in saliva samples with a dilution of 1 : 10 on days 0 (pretreatment), 90, 180, and 360 in patients treated with chlorhexidine, fluoride, and propolis varnishes. The data correspond to the mean and standard deviation of the logarithm of the number of CFUs verified in the saliva samples of 25 patients treated with chlorhexidine and fluoride varnish and 24 subjects treated with propolis varnish.

Day	Chlorhexidine	Fluoride	Propolis	Significance (ANOVA)
	Mean ± SD	Mean ± SD	Mean ± SD
0	0.58 ± 0.43	0.86 ± 0.37a	1.01 ± 0.40c	p = 0.0010
90	0.38 ± 0.23	0.51 ± 0.33z	0.64 ± 0.45a,x	p = 0.0403
180	0.33 ± 0.14x	0.41 ± 0.24z	0.60 ± 0.40b,y	p = 0.0042
360	0.55 ± 0.52	0.53 ± 0.44z	0.71 ± 0.35	p = 0.2869
Significance (repeated measures ANOVA)	p = 0.0107	p < 0.0001	p = 0.0036

SD: standard deviation; ANOVA: analysis of variance; ^a(p < 0.05), ^b(p < 0.01), and ^c(p < 0.001) denote statistically significant differences in relation to the chlorhexidine varnish on the same day (Tukey's test); ^x(p < 0.05), ^y(p < 0.01), ^z(p < 0.001) indicate statistically significant differences in relation to day 0 in the same group (Tukey's test).