Fig. 5

Changes in plaque indices of 30 orthodontically treated patients and in their oral microbial status; i.e., the association of changes in plaque index (PI) with the deterioration of the Candida sp. status (i.e., increase in the number of Candida sp.), of the percentage of 7 periodontal bacteria, and of the percentage of 3 selected cariogenic bacteria relative to the total prokaryotic DNA between T0 and T1 time points; blue circle, patients with deterioration of Candida status; red circle, patients with deterioration of the status of the 7 periodontal bacteria (Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitants, Tannarella forsythia, Porphyromonas gingivalis, Prevotella intermedia, Treponema, Denticola, Parvimonas micra, Fusobacterium nucleatum); grey circle, patients with deterioration of the status of the 3 cariogenic bacteria (Streptococcus mutans, Lactobacillus sp., Actinomyces sp.); N, number of patients; the differences between groups are evaluated using the Fisher’s exact test