Treating Head Lice: Making an Informed Choice
Did you just discover someone in your family has lice? Maybe you know a family member has lice and you have been trying to treat it yourself for a while but the infestation continues?
Products to treat lice range from over-the-counter (OTC) treatments, to prescription treatments, to a professional lice removal treatment offered at our two head lice clinics. :
Knowing a little information about the available lice treatments can go a long way in helping you to make an informed choice.
OVER-THE-COUNTER TREATMENTS
The typical first-line treatment for lice that most parents select is an OTC shampoo, such as Rid or NIX. At first, this seems the least costly route to go and the boxes say that the products kill lice and lice eggs.
However, both of these products contain chemicals from a class of chemical compounds called pyrethrins. Not only are these products full of chemicals and can cause irritation to the scalp, lice have now mutated and have become more resistant to the chemicals in these products. A 2016 study found that resistant lice to these two products have spread to 48 states.
Most families that end up using our services have tried this route only to waste time and money finding out their child or they still have head lice.
PRESCRIPTION MEDICATIONS
If OTC products don’t treat your lice or if infestations come back repeatedly, you can consider asking your doctor if you are treating the infestation properly or if prescription medications may help.
Prescription treatments include: malathion (Ovide), lindane (Kwell), benzyl alcohol (Ulesfia), ivermectin (Sklice), and spinosad (Natroba).
The costs for prescription head lice products vary, but they are all much more expensive than OTC treatments. What’s worse, they are also full of very harsh chemicals (even more than OTC) that can really irritate your scalp or neck, work about 70% of the time, and are not readily available at pharmacies.
COMBING OUT YOURSELF
This is a chemical free option that can work but it takes time, patience, accuracy and a high quality lice comb. So it is a balance between the value of your time, money, and knowing for sure the person is lice free or not. You need to comb out every day for about 7-10 days and make sure you do not miss one egg. Eggs are the size of a grain of sand, do not move, and are typically glued to the hair strand. All lice eggs must hatch within 5-7 days so if you miss one egg, the lice infestation can last days, weeks, months, and even years. You are looking for a needle in a haystack. It can also be very stressful combing out your own child. What’s more, half the people we treat are adults (usually moms) and it can be a huge challenge to comb out your own hair.
NO SAFETY NET IF THE PERSON GETS LICE AGAIN
Even if OTC, Prescription, or Manual Comb-Out were to work, none of them have a safety net for you if the person gets head lice again. You get head lice from someone else and it is definitely possible for that person to get lice again. Not only is our process 99% effective, is chemical free, and take about 1 hour we also provide a 30 day lice free guarantee with our Full Service Treatment!