St. Louis Baby Tooth Study – Frequently Asked Questions

If you are a participant in our study, and received an invitation letter from our study team asking you to participate, then please go to our “Study Surveys” page to access our surveys by clicking here.

If you have already completed a survey and cognitive test, then please use your same study ID (included on all study emails and letters) to complete survey 2 and cognitive test 2. Survey 1 was originally called “Start the Study” on our landing page. If you aren’t sure if you have taken a survey or cognitive test yet, please email our study team at slbt@hsph.harvard.edu.

If you were invited to participate in the study, but have not taken a study survey yet, please start with survey 1 and cognitive test 1. Please do not continue onto survey 2 until you receive another invitation letter.

Everyone in the study should complete our Enrolled Participant Form, regardless of whether you have completed survey 1 or survey 2. You only need to complete this form once, and if you ever need to update your contact details, you can use our Update Status form.

If you believe your teeth were donated as a child and you have not received an invitation letter for the current study, please click here to fill out our MY TOOTH survey which will ask you for information that can help us link you to your baby tooth. Unfortunately, because of the large number of responses we anticipate, if we do not have one of your teeth, we will not be able to respond.

Please note: we currently have about 100,000 of the 300,000 teeth from the original study, so you may have donated, but yours is not among the teeth we have now. Additionally, the original study sometimes used destructive analytical techniques that involved crushing and combining many teeth to get one test result. It is possible that any teeth you donated to the original study were used in that process, so we may not have them even if you remember donating them. If we have your teeth we will reach out to you.

We do not have access to results from the original study, so we are unable to provide you with any of your results from that study.

Please have the person in question fill out our MY TOOTH survey at https://hsph.me/MYTOOTH so that we can check to see if we have their baby tooth! Unfortunately, because of the large number of responses we anticipate, if we do not have one of their teeth, we will not be able to respond.

Please note: we currently have about 100,000 of the 300,000 teeth from the original study, so they may have donated, but theirs is not among the teeth we have now. Additionally, the original study sometimes used destructive analytical techniques that involved crushing and combining many teeth to get one test result. It is possible that any teeth they donated to the original study were used in that process, so we may not have them even if they remember donating them. If we have their teeth, we will reach out to them.

We do not have access to results from the original study, so we are unable to provide them with any of their results from that study.

Our entire study, including any method of using or accessing your data, is monitored by Harvard’s Institutional Review Board (IRB) and Harvard’s Office of the Vice Provost for Research (which oversees data safety and research compliance), as well as the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which is the sponsor of this work, to make sure we are up to every standard for human subjects research and data safety.

Additionally, all personnel on the study are required to be certified in human subjects protection training. We take every precaution to make sure all data stays private.

After the study is completed, your data would only be made public if it was completely anonymized—meaning any and all personally identifiable information was removed—so no information could be traced back to you.

We do not have access to any results from the original baby tooth survey, so unfortunately, we cannot provide them to you.

In this phase of the study, we do not have any individual tooth analyses, but if you are randomly selected for Phase II, we may test your donated baby teeth. We are currently working with Harvard’s Institutional Review Board (IRB) to determine the ethical best practices for returning those results. If you would like to provide feedback about this or anything else about the study, please click here to access our Update Status Form and select the option to provide feedback.

We do not currently have a plan to try and extract DNA from the teeth. We are also unsure if it would be technically or economically feasible to extract DNA from your teeth, as they have been sitting in storage for about 50 years!

In the small chance that we do test for DNA in previously donated teeth, we would need to go through, and get approval from, our Institutional Review Board (IRB) that ensures we are up to the highest standards in human subjects research and obtain appropriate approvals..

Sure! If you don’t mind mailing us your extracted tooth it may be helpful to the study! We cannot guarantee we will analyze it. If we do analyze it, we cannot guarantee we will be able to provide any results. Any costs you incur by sending your tooth cannot be reimbursed. If this is ok with you, please wrap your extracted tooth in a soft material and include a note with your study ID, full name, and if you have it, your extraction date and tooth type (e.g. incisor, canine, pre-molars, molars). You can send the package or envelope to:

Marc Weisskopf - Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
665 Huntington Ave, Bldg 1, Suite 1402
Boston, MA 02115

The original St. Louis Baby Tooth Study ran throughout the 1950’s and 60’s. Initiated by the Greater St. Louis Citizens’ Committee for Nuclear Information, in conjunction with Saint Louis University and the Washington University School of Dental Medicine, the study examined whether above ground nuclear testing and fallout could be detected within the teeth of children in and around St. Louis.

The St. Louis Dispatch recently wrote an article about both the original and our current study: https://www.stltoday.com/lifestyles/health-med-fit/health/harvard-university-research-revives-use-of-decades-old-famous-st-louis-baby-tooth-survey/article_37ee11f9-768a-5b5f-bf06-a6bb4e5a35c8.html

You can also read more about the original study in our first newsletter, published February 21, 2024, by clicking here.

Further reading on results and aims of the original study can be found here:

• https://www.prismjournal.org/uploads/1/2/5/6/125661607/v11-no1-a1.pdf
• https://www.nytimes.com/1961/11/25/archives/babies-surveyed-for-strontium-90-ratio-to-calcium-in-bones-is.html
• https://doi.org/10.1126%2Fscience.134.3491.1669
• https://doi.org/10.2190%2FHS.41.1.j
• https://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/14/health/14cancer.html

We are randomly inviting about 1000 participants who have completed both the survey and cognitive test to join Phase II of the study. Unfortunately, this must be done through random selection, so we are unable to take volunteers unless they have already been selected. Phase II, like our general Surveys, is entirely voluntary, and you are not obligated to participate even if you are selected!

We will be asking Phase II participants to donate blood, toenails (yes, toenails!) and, for some, tap water, to our study. We will send you all the required materials and instructions. You will also receive another consent form with more information at the time you are selected. Please keep a look out for future emails or letters from the St. Louis Baby Tooth Team inviting you to join Phase II!

The Enrolled Participant Information (EPI) Form is a critical part of our study and is for all individuals who have been invited to participate in our study! This form collects detailed contact information to ensure that we can reach you with future information or invitations and that we can match your current information to all the baby teeth that you donated. Ultimately, every participant in the study should complete an Enrolled Participant Information form. You can access our Enrolled Participant Information form by clicking here.

On the other hand, the Update Status Form is an optional form for those invited to participate in any part of the study. It’s a tool to allow you to inform us of any updates to your contact information, share your insights or concerns, or express your decision to discontinue participation in any part of the study. You can access our Update Status Form by clicking here.

If you’ve already provided your latest contact information through your Enrolled Participant Information Form, then there’s no need to submit an Update Status Form with the same contact details. However, if your information ever changes thereafter, please use the Update Status Form to let us know about your updated contact details or name changes.

Our apologies if we’ve misspelled your name or address! If you would like to give us your preferred contact information or name, please click here to access our Update Status Form.

Please accept our condolences and apologies if receiving this letter has caused you any distress. Please click here to access our Update Status Form to let us know that the participant we are trying to contact is deceased. We ask that you provide the study ID on the invitation letter and fill out the relevant questions on the form. There are several options for you if you would like to be further involved with this study on behalf of the deceased participant.

We are continuously trying to improve and refine our study—thank you for voicing your thoughts and opinions as part of this process! If you would like to leave us feedback or comments, please click here to access our Update Status Form and select the option to provide feedback.

If you received a study invitation letter addressed to the wrong individual, please click here to access our Update Status Form and select the option for incorrectly contacted individuals.

Yes! Although it would be ideal to complete all parts of the survey in one go, we understand that you may need to save your answers and return later. In the event you need to leave and come back, please click the “Return Later” button at the bottom of the screen (highlighted in yellow below)!

When you click this button, you will be shown a new web page with a URL (written in blue text) that you can save and use to return to your survey at any time. Below this URL, you will also have the option to submit your email and you will be sent the URL to return to your place in the survey.

If you are unable to re-access your survey, please email us at slbt@hsph.harvard.edu with your study ID, full name, and further details on your situation! If you do not have access to an email at this time, please call us at 617-432-0041 with the above information, and we will get back to you as soon as we can.

Yes! Although it would be ideal to complete all parts of the cognitive testing in one go, we understand that you may need to save your answers and return later. Please make sure you complete your current section before you leave the page.

If you entered your email as your preferred contact method at the beginning of the survey, you should automatically be emailed a link to your cognitive test once you submit the survey. Please check your spam folder if you do not see it!

You can use this link to return to your cognitive test home page if you get disconnected during your test or if you want to view your cognitive test results at a later date. If you did not provide an email at the beginning of the survey and would like your link to your cognitive test, please email us at slbt@hsph.harvard.edu or call us at 617-432-0041 and we can provide it.

How do I find the results of my cognitive test?

You should be automatically redirected to the cognitive test upon completing the survey. At the end of the cognitive testing, a blue “My Results” will appear in the upper right corner of the cognitive test home screen. This will contain the results of your cognitive test!

If you entered your email as your preferred contact method at the beginning of the survey, you should automatically be emailed a link to your cognitive test once you submit the survey. Please check your spam folder if you do not see it! You can use this link to return to your cognitive test home page if you get disconnected during your test or if you want to view your cognitive test results at a later date.

If you did not provide an email at the beginning of your survey, you can still access your 1^st cognitive test through our cognitive test connection form by clicking here. This form will ask you to enter your 6-digit study ID twice and then click submit. Then you will be taken to the landing page of your cognitive test 1.  If you see that your cognitive test 1 is not complete, please make sure that you have already completed your survey 1 before continuing!

How do I opt out of the study?

If you would no longer like to be contacted by our study, please click here to access our Update Status Form and provide your study ID and select one of our two opt-out options. This will remove you from our study, but you are always welcome to email slbt@hsph.harvard.edu or call us at 617-432-0041 with any questions or concerns (or to rejoin if you change your mind!).

We absolutely understand that this might be a bit of a strange letter to receive!

Essentially, it is most likely that your parents donated your baby tooth when you were a child to the Baby Tooth Survey. This study looked at radiation from above ground nuclear testing. Many of these teeth were used for just this, but some were left over after the nuclear test ban was enacted by JFK–at least one of them was yours!

Attached to your donated teeth were cards filled out by your parents with your name, childhood address, and birthday. We then used an address verification service to help us search public records for your current contact information. It wasn’t always perfect, but we’ve been very impressed with its track record!

Please click here to begin our first study survey by reading our consent form and to access the study survey and cognitive tests!

At the very bottom of the consent form, you will need to enter your unique 6-digit study ID, which can be found halfway through the third paragraph of your study invitation letter. You will then be asked if you would like to participate in the study. If you would like to continue, please enter your 6-digit study ID, select “Yes” and then click the crimson “Next” at the bottom of the screen. On the final page of the survey, there is a submit button. When you click submit, you will be automatically redirected to your cognitive test.

If for some reason you are unable to access the survey, please email us at slbt@hsph.harvard.edu with your study ID, full name, and further details on your situation! If you do not have access to an email at this time, please call us at 617-432-0041 with the above information, and we will get back to you as soon as we can.

Unfortunately, we are unable to offer a paper survey for those who are cannot participate in our study online. The cognitive test is also only available online, so we do encourage online participation if possible.

However, if you have someone to help you access the survey online, we encourage you to try to take the survey! Our surveys ask if someone helped you or took the survey on your behalf, and this data will still be very helpful to us.

If you are not able to complete the survey online and cannot take the survey online with the help of someone else, you can click here to access our Update Status Form to opt out of the study.

Your study ID is halfway through the third paragraph of your study invitation letter! If you still cannot find your study ID, please contact us at slbt@hsph.harvard.edu with your full name (and original childhood last name), and we will find it for you. If you are unable to email us at this time, please call us at 617-432-0041 with the above information, and we will get back to you as soon as we can.

When you go to hsph.me/slbt, you will first see our study’s landing page. Click on the first box, “Study Surveys” and then on the next page, click the box “Start Survey 1!”, or you can click here. You will see the consent form as well as more information about the study at the top of the page.

Once you read through the consent form, scroll to the very bottom of this page using your mouse, the down arrow on your keyboard, or the scroll bar on the right side of the page (highlighted in yellow below).

At the very bottom of the consent form, you will need to enter your unique 6-digit study ID, which can be found halfway through the third paragraph of your study invitation letter. You will then be asked if you would like to participate in the study. If you would like to continue, please enter your 6-digit study ID, select “Yes” and then click the crimson “Next” at the bottom of the screen (highlighted in red below).

If the problem persists, please switch internet web browsers (e.g. switch to Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, etc.) and try this process again!

If you still cannot access the survey, please email us at slbt@hsph.harvard.edu with your study ID, full name, and further details on your situation! If you do not have access to an email at this time, please call us at 617-432-0041 with the above information, and we will get back to you as soon as we can.

The most important reason is that our health changes over time. To better understand why and how health changes, we need to re-ask you some of the questions you answered before and ask a few new ones. We also would like to get better information on certain aspects of your life that are related to healthy aging. Some of these were even suggested by your fellow participants as things they thought were important for us to know! If you would like to provide feedback about questions you see in our study, or anything else, please click here to access our Update Status Form which has options to provide feedback.

Ideally, we would like you to take the first survey and the second at different times (at least 6 months apart). Please only take survey 2 once you receive an invitation from us, to make sure that you do not take it too soon.

If you think you should have been contacted, and have not received an invitation yet, please make sure that we have your best contact information by clicking here to fill out our Update Status Form.

We are hoping to send surveys every 2-3 years to assess how your health is changing over time. These likely will include some repeat questions and some new ones to reflect exciting new research. We also hope to send additional surveys with more specific questions on certain topics like diet and other factors.

There is a lot of evidence that shows our childhood is important for our long-term health. This includes aspects that we are happy about and things that may make us uncomfortable to talk about. If you feel uneasy answering any of these questions, please leave that question blank. We do hope that getting more information about these parts of your childhood can help us understand how they are relevant for health and aging. But we understand that there are things you may want to keep private. This information could help decide which resources to give children today to help them lead healthy lives.

Where we live is very important for our health. In fact, for many health conditions our ZIP code is more relevant than our genetic code. Providing information on where you have lived throughout your life can help us understand why this may be the case. A unique aspect about this study is that many of you grew up in the same metropolitan area (St. Louis!), but now may live anywhere in the world. This could help answer some questions that no other study can answer! We take keeping your data secure very seriously. While this is true for all information you provide us, we will take additional precautions to keep your address data safe by limiting access to specific personnel on the study team for use on computers in our secure lab with only password protected access. Additionally, any maps and figures that are produced will not reveal specific locations of the residences you provide to us. We will do this by aggregating results to a zip code level or by “jittering” points so that they are not displayed in their exact real location.