TABLE 1.

S. mutans and Veillonella parvula/dispar correlation coefficients for carious teeth^a

Group	r	P value	No. of bacteria
Aggregate	0.389	<0.001	84
Patient 1	0.271	0.603	6
Patient 2	0.607	0.002	24
Patient 3	0.180	0.575	12
Patient 4	−0.392	0.442	6
Patient 5	0.585	0.046	12
Patient 6	0.909	<0.001	12
Patient 7	−0.047	0.884	12

^aColonization levels for S. mutans and V. parvula/dispar on all diseased teeth from each person or the aggregate of all 7 patients together were compared using the Pearson’s correlation coefficient (r). If r is equal to 0.3 to 0.39, there is a moderate positive correlation between the species. When r equals 0.4 to 0.69, there is a strong positive correlation between the species, and if r is ≥0.7, there is a very strong correlation. All values ≥0.3 are in bold. In 3 out of 7 patients, there was a strong or very strong correlation between the levels of S. mutans and V. parvula/dispar on carious teeth. Furthermore, when all patients were combined (aggregate), there was still a correlation between the levels of S. mutans and V. parvula/dispar. For the one case (patient 4) where a negative correlation was found, the difference was not significant (P = 0.442).