I keep meeting older adults who have lost money in exploitative financial investments.

There was the financial adviser who convinced his clients to invest $50,000 in a life settlements, but the company they invested in was put out of business by state regulators. Read that here.

There was the 79-year-old man who lost $20,000 to an ex-convict in a home foundation scam. Read that here.

There were the retired teachers getting hit with postcards enticing them to invest in financial instruments that are loaded with excess fees. Read that here.

As I continue to research why the elderly are so vulnerable, I receive troubling letters from adult children of older adults.

Christine writes me that her father fell for a Jamaican prize scam and lost $50,000. “He is so upset with the final realization that he lost all of his money that he won’t let me help him,” she writes.

Annette writes that her father lives alone and is inundated with mail announcing that he has won lotteries, sweepstakes and other contests. All he has to do is send money to claim the rest of the prize. “He believes the windfall of money will land in his mailbox,” she writes. “This encompasses his daily life. It’s all he talks about, the money he is waiting for.” But it never comes.

There’s a name for this: elder investment fraud and financial exploitation. Although the problem is expected to get worse as more Americans grow older, initial signs are that one possible solution is coming out of Texas.

A pilot program originated by Baylor College of Medicine in Houston looks at how older adults may lose some mental abilities that helped them avoid risky situations. The medical term is cognitive impairment, and one-third of all adults older than 71 show some signs of it.

Couple that with a strong desire for more money, as shown by Christine’s and Annette’s fathers, and you’ve got the making of a financial catastrophe.

The Baylor program trains Texas doctors to detect warning signs of mental impairment that may make people susceptible to fraud. The doctors are shown how to report what they find to authorities such as the Texas State Securities Board and Adult Protective Services.

The experiment has its roots in a revelation by former Securities and Exchange Commissioner Christopher Cox. He said a few years ago that his elderly mother, besieged by throat cancer and unable to talk, was pestered by salesmen with a barrage of annuity schemes and bad mortgage offers.

“Even though my father was suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, the brokers would prey upon him as well,” Cox said.

The products horrified Cox: They included annuities with huge penalties and a low-rate 30-year mortgage with a short-term loan that had a balloon payment and a teaser rate.

“That would have cost my parents their home when it came due,” Cox said.

Robert Roush, an associate professor of geriatrics at Baylor, heard about Cox’s statements and decided to pursue the matter as a field of study.

He learned that older adults can be especially susceptible to schemes where the true penalties of the investment are hidden in fine print. As adults grow older, they may take greater risks. Cognitive impairment is found in half of all adults older than 85, some researchers say.

When baby boomers reach senior citizen status, 1 in 5 Americans will be older than 65.

“We’ve got a large, growing population that is going to roughly double in the next 20 years,” Roush said. “It will change the way this country operates.”

He wants to change the way older adults are protected, too. His project is growing. Regulators from 30 states, including the Texas State Securities Board, have joined.

The program is built around red-flag questions that a doctor can ask a patient. Samples from the project’s Clinician’s Pocket Guide include: Who manages your money day to day? How is that going? Do you regret or worry about financial decisions you’ve recently made?

In Texas, almost 70 doctors participated in the study. About half reported to state authorities that they encountered potential victims before they were hurt and, in some cases, after they lost money.

June 15 was designated World Elder Abuse Awareness Day. The Investor Protection Trust released a study that day showing that 1 in 5 Americans 65 and over has been victimized by financial fraud. That’s 7 million people.

During his research, Roush learned about older adults hurt through cellphone contracts, credit card offers, car loans and “on almost every financial transaction you can think of.”

“If there’s a hell, those scammers are the ones that will burn the hottest,” he said. “At least I hope so.”

His project, if successful, may turn up the heat on them here, too.

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WARNING SIGNS:

You run out of money by the end of the month.

You regret or worry about financial decisions.

Your bills are confusing, and you have trouble paying them.

You don’t feel confident making big decisions alone.

You don’t understand financial decisions others are making for you.

You give loans or gifts that you can’t afford.

Your children are pressuring you to give them money or change your will.

Someone is accessing your accounts, and money is disappearing.

You can’t reach your financial adviser.

Source: Baylor College of Medicine’s Texas Consortium Geriatric Education Center.

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RESOURCES:

Here’s the “Pocket Guide on Elder Investment Fraud and Financial Exploitation.”

Research investment advisors at the Securities and Exchange Commission website here.

Spend some time at the National Committee for Prevention of Elder Abuse website.

Learn about the Duke University student that shows that one in three people over 70 have memory impairment

Read about the Investor Protection Trust study that showed  that one out of five Americans older than 65 have been victimized by financial fraud.

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Dave Lieber, The Watchdog columnist for The Fort Worth Star-Telegram, is the founder of Watchdog Nation. The new 2010 edition of his book, Dave Lieber’s Watchdog Nation: Bite Back When Businesses and Scammers Do You Wrong, is out. Revised and expanded, the book won two national book awards in 2009 for social change. Twitter @DaveLieber

If you want white teeth, you face a dilemma. Do you go to a dentist and take advantage of his or her expertise — and pay a little more? Or do you visit a spa, non-dental clinic or even a mall kiosk to get it done at a lower price?

Dentists say only they have the expertise to find problems with your teeth and mouth that could adversely affect the whitening process. Owners of non-dental establishments and the companies that supply them with “laser” lights and bleaching materials say their process is just as safe. In most cases, dentists charge more, but you get their expertise, too.

About 10 states regulate non-dental teeth whitening procedures.

For the rest, it’s the buyer beware.

I don’t know what it says about our culture — I’ll leave that to cultural anthropologists — that Americans feel the need to have the whitest smiles possible. But I do worry that this is a relatively new business that is unstudied, unregulated in most places and, like the Internet, has to be looked at in the coming years.

For help with this, I visited a spa in my neighborhood that has a white banner outside announcing “Laser Teeth Whitening” hanging outside. Owner Lottie Holmes of Lottie’s Skin & Hair Clinic in Watauga, Texas says the banner is working: more customers are coming in to improve their smiles.

For more than a year, she has offered laser teeth-whitening services in her salon, part of a growing, relatively new industry that is stealing business from dentists.

“We jumped on it because it’s painless, noninvasive and safe,” Holmes says.

The service uses a light, not a laser, although most call it that. The staffers who use it receive one day of training.

My home state of Texas has no rules about who can perform laser teeth-whitening. Holmes is a licensed cosmetologist, but she doesn’t need any type of license to operate the light machine.

And because there are no state rules, if anyone complains about teeth-whitening practices at a clinic, spa or any other place (like a mall kiosk), state officials have no choice but to turn them away.

Lisa Jones, director of enforcement for the Texas State Board of Dental Examiners, says, “We do get complaints about these clinics operating, but since we don’t have jurisdiction over them, what we do is refer them to local law enforcement authorities.” Legislation would be needed to regulate teeth-whitening businesses.

Members of the Texas Dental Association say they are frustrated not so much by the independent operators but by the state dental board, which could enforce the state’s dental law more forcefully. Some dentists say they believe these businesses operate an illegal dentistry practice.

Austin dentist Mark Peppard is chairman of an association task force studying the illegal practice of dentistry in Texas, “specifically tooth-whitening,” he says.

Dentists, he says, are concerned that nondentists won’t recognize tooth decay, gum disease or other maladies before applying bleaching agents and what’s called accelerated light to stimulate the chemicals to clean the teeth. Long-term damage is possible, they say.

“It’s simple to say, ‘I drink Coke or coffee.’ But what if disease or a massive cavity is causing a tooth to get darker?” Peppard says.

Nondental technicians, especially those at malls, he says, ask customers to place substances and trays in their own mouth so that the technicians are not actually touching the mouth area — and, technically, not practicing dentistry.

Dentist David Tillman worries that the “caustic chemicals” used in treatments can harm patients if applied by someone other than a trained dentist or dental staffer.

Mary Swift, a dentist at Dallas Laser Dentistry, says dentists are allowed to offer a higher concentration of the bleaching chemical than nondentists. Dentists can offer hydrogen peroxide at 35 percent, but nondentists must offer 10 percent or less.

“Protecting the gums, controlling sensitivity, the concentration of bleach, the type of light source — those are all questions you should ask the guy around the corner,” she says.

Swift charges $600 to $1,000 for teeth-whitening services.

At her clinic, Holmes charges $249, although a follow-up visit, if necessary, may cost an extra $50.

Holmes says that she is well aware of dentists’ concerns but that she knows what she is doing. She protects gums from damage, and her clients don’t suffer from teeth sensitivity problems because of the equipment she uses, she says. Her facility is sanitary, she adds, and she hasn’t heard any complaints.

Tillman says that “until complaints are brought forth, these businesses are probably going to keep going.”

A quick check at the Better Business Bureau found very few complaints, but no specific state agency takes complaints about this.

Joshua Granson, vice president of Beyond Dental & Health, the company that sold Holmes the machine and trained her staff, explains: “We sell to medical spas and salons, people that have training in hygiene. We still want our products represented in an environment that is clean and nice. We don’t want to sell to just anybody.”

Peppard, of the Texas Dental Association, warns: “Just because you see it on TV or in a magazine doesn’t mean it’s safe. It’s not as safe as you think it is. Significant problems can arise from this.

“Instead of just doing something on the spur of the moment, think about how it will affect your teeth. Ask yourself, ‘What should I be worried about? Why shouldn’t I go to a dentist about this?’”

Many customers think about price before anything else, but he figured out a way to combat that argument. He only charges $300.