Figure 1

A consort flow chart showing the number of participants in the control and probiotic groups at the beginning and completion of the trial. Out of 246 children enrolled in this trial, 60 participants remained eligible due to the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Sixty participants were equally allocated to either the control or the probiotic group by simple randomization described in the Methods. Participants received milk powder with or without probiotics during the first six-month intervention, and saliva samples were collected for analyses of HNP1-3 levels, MS and LB counts at four different time points: T0, T3, T6 and T12. Oral examination for evaluation of ICDAS scores was performed at T0 and T12.